Potholes on pavements are preventing the elderly from walking near their homes, a charity has claimed.

Nearly a third of adults over 65 (31%) feel reluctant to leave the house on foot due to the volume of cracks and uneven surfaces on surrounding streets, a survey found.

Living Streets, the charity behind the research, said poor pavement maintenance deprived older people of exercise needed to curb the risk of depression and dementia.

Local authorities have come under increasing pressure to take Britain’s pothole problem in hand, but the focus of campaigners typically alights on roads rather than pavements.

Research found 60% of the elderly worried about the state of street surfaces, while nearly half (48%) felt well-maintained pavements would make them more likely to go for a walk.

Exercise was found to be the main reason that older adults enjoyed leaving the house on foot.

Joe Irvin, chief executive of charity Living Streets, said: "Walking regularly can be an antidote to isolation, helping to reduce the risk of depression and dementia.

"If we all viewed our streets through the lens of an older adult - or a child, a wheelchair user or someone living with sight loss - we would soon begin to understand how unfit for purpose a lot of them are.