A disabled woman has started a petition to campaign for better roads and pavements in her village.

Lucy Stevenson of Canon’s Close, Guilden Morden, has collected 403 signatures demanding action be taken by Cambridgeshire County Council to improve the situation for pedestrians and cyclists.

The 43-year-old said: “The condition of roads and pavements in Guilden Morden are appalling, with potholes everywhere. I decided something needed to be done and went to collect signatures from house to house.

“I was amazed at the number of people who signed the petition, and many of them related stories of injuries they had suffered or of people they knew who had suffered and been inconvenienced.”

Miss Stevenson, who is a member of the South Cambridgeshire Disability Forum, suffered a brain aneurism in 2008, and defied doctors’ expectations by learning to speak again.

She said several roads, including the High Street, Pound Green and Church Street, all need urgent attention.

“In the winter or in the evenings children walking to school have got nowhere to pass,” she said.

“The roads are so bad with potholes and puddles there’s no place walk safely.”

She will present her petition to Cambridgeshire County Council at its meeting next Tuesday.

Councillor Adrian Dent, who represents the Bassingbourn ward which covers Guilden Morden, fully supports the petition.

“I’ve been out there and walked with them and am putting a report together on the state of the roads,” he said.

“They are in a terrible state. The roads in question are single lane roads, and residents all park down there on the verges, which are now virtually gone.”

Mr Dent added that some work was being carried out to clear gulleys, which have caused a lot of flooding.

But he said: “I give their petition my full backing, they have a right to have a grievance.

“I believe they are getting the short end of the straw.”