THE disgraceful state of Worcestershire’s pavements leaves county council chiefs with an interesting dilemma – do they stump up the extra cash to put them right or risk a glut of expensive compensation claims?

The former might well seem the obvious solution to take. But there are no easy options in these tough times.

The county council, already under fire for cuts in services, knows well enough that pumping money into one department means the same amount of cash has to be saved from elsewhere.

To bring the county’s pavements and footways up to scratch is a huge task. More than half are deemed defective and repairing them all would set council taxpayers back £50 million. That option can be ruled out without the need for discussion.

The money is not in the pot.

Stopping the rot and merely preventing problems getting any worse, meanwhile, would mean the current footways maintenance budget trebling to almost £6 million a year.

That seems like a lot of money just to stand still and it will have to be found from somewhere. It cannot be dismissed, however, because the worse pavements get the more compensation claims the council will receive as a result of injuries caused by falls and trips.

It is a delicate balancing act and we do not pretend to have a solution to the problem. What we do know, however, is that prevention is better than cure and that proper maintenance of the county’s footways over a substantial period of time would not have left the council in this situation.