A CYCLIST who was injured after tumbling from his bike on the way home from work has blamed a multi-million roadwork project in Oxford.

Chris Waites, 30, was cycling back home from the Churchill Hospital on December 21 when he hit a kerb which had been laid to divide a cycle path and a path for pedestrians as part of the Access to Headington project.

He fell, badly scratching his left leg and left arm at the corner of The Slade and Cinnaminta Road, minutes into his 11-mile bike ride to Long Wittenham after he finished work at the hospital.

Mr Waites said ‘nobody has a good word to say’ about the way Access to Headington has been carried out and that kerbing along the road has been installed incorrectly by Oxfordshire County Council.

He claims the divide between bike path should only be 3mm high – but that the ones along The Slade have been built up higher and that it forced him into the path of traffic.

As a result of last month's crash, which took place at about 8pm, he was pushed into the road as a moped rider was passing

And the cyclist was worried his injuries could have been much worse had there been a lorry or a car there instead.

He said: “The issue with the cycle lane is the top of the kerb. It is one of those things that you think you can cycle over.

“The wheel skidded towards the road. It was fortunate it was a moped because if it was a bus I wouldn’t have been so lucky.”

"If the kerbs are mounted at a sharp angle as Oxfordshire County Council and (its contractor) Skanska have done and you catch them in the wet you immediately lose control and you slide front wheel first back towards traffic, and indeed underneath the wheels of any passing vehicle.”

New father Mr Waites, whose wife Miriam gave birth to their first child, Katya, just two days after the accident on December 23, said he was keen to highlight the difficulties riders were having along the new cycle path.

He said that as part of other work paid for by the council, cyclists are being forced to bike around a bus shelter to stay on their route on The Slade.

He said: “I emailed the council before the accident and they emailed me and said: ‘we are not doing anything about it.’

“They’ve put cones on the outside of the cycle path.”

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Martin Crabtree said: “The intermediate kerb that separates the cycleway and footpath is designed to allow for transition between surfaces and conforms to standard.”

As the Oxford Mail reported late last year, more than 2,000 cyclists were injuries in crashes on Oxford’s roads over 10 years.

Figures put together by CycleStreets revealed there were 2,004 collisions between 2005 and 2016, clustered in problem areas which included busy routes including Botley Road, Abingdon Road, Woodstock Road and Banbury Road.

Over recent months, some campaigners have highlighted the need to improve safety for cyclists in the city following the death of Oxford University student Claudia Comberti, who died after she fell off her bike and into the path of a bus on Botley Road on May 9, 2017.

Groups, including Cyclox and the Broken Spoke Co-Op, published the Claudia Charter for Safer Cycling in November and are calling for more money to pay for cycling infrastructure.