BRIGHTON and Hove has been named as one of the most dangerous places in the country for pedestrians.

The city has been named as one of the ten worst local authority areas in the UK for serious injuries and deaths suffered by pedestrians.

Council officials suggested a high number of visitors and commuters lay behind the city’s ranking but the report’s author suggested this was unlikely to be a factor outside the capital.

Pedestrians were twice as likely to suffer serious injuries in Brighton and Hove according to accident figures for 2010 to 2014 as they were in the country as a whole.

The dates include the first eight months of 20 mph zones being introduced in their first phase across the city.

In East Sussex, serious pedestrian accidents over the same period were 32 per cent higher than the UK average.

The rate of serious injuries and deaths in West Sussex was just below the national average of 45.6 incidents per 100,000 of the population.

For children, the serious accident rate in Brighton and Hove was 34 per cent higher than the national average of 65 injured per 100,000 children and only marginally lower in East Sussex.

Again accident rates in West Sussex were below the national average for injuries suffered by children aged up to 15 years at 53.9 per 100,000 children.

Brighton and Hove City Council said as well as 20 mph zones, the council was delivering several safety schemes including building dropped kerbs and tactile paving, updating a number of crossing facilities and the Safer Routes to School scheme which was delivering 23 separate measures to protect pupils walking to school.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said the deaths of six adults and one child pedestrian during the five year period worked out at an average of one pedestrian fatality a year in a city of approximately 275,000 and 8 million visitors a year.

She added: “The number of killed and seriously injured casualties can be misleading as we have very few deaths in Brighton and Hove.

“Serious injuries have increased but not among pedestrians which in 2014 were 18.5 per cent down on the average for the previous five years.”

An East Sussex County Council spokeswoman said improvement schemes were being carried out in the county to the benefit of pedestrians including more crossing facilities and schemes that introduce a more friendly environment.

She added: “Without being able to identify the cause of the increase, it is difficult to effectively target resources to tackle factors that have led to the increase – this applies to all partners in the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership."