PEDESTRIANS tripping over damaged pavements have cost Gwent councils more than £3 million in compensation payouts.

The biggest loser, Newport council, has paid out £1.7m in settlements since 1999, of which just £200,000 was covered by insurance.

Blaenau Gwent estimates that disputes over faulty paths and roads have cost it around £800,000 in compensation over the past five years.

In the same period, Torfaen council paid out £559,000. The authority faces hundreds of thousands in claims that have yet to reach court.

And in Monmouthshire between April 2001 and July 2004, the council fought 81 claims and lost 13, paying out £34,000. Caerphilly council were unable to comment.

Claimants can lodge a complaint up to three years after a fall, so all Gwent councils are likely to face further payouts.

Councillor Ed Townsend said of Newport's £1.7m settlement bill: "That money would be better spent repairing the pavements than compensation.

"These pavements have been neglected over the years. I want the council to take a five- or ten- year view and make the investment. In a few years, as claims drop, the council could break even instead of breaking legs and ankles."

Councillor Ron Jones, cabinet member for transport, said the 'claims culture' of blame and compensation that has grown in Britain was partly to blame.

He added: "We get a lot of false claims and we have won a few court cases.

"But it's a big problem and the only solution is to repair the pavements. We cannot do that on the resources we've got at the moment."

Newport has pledged £400,000 to repair pavements in 2004/05, but Councillor Jones said: "£400,000 sounds like a lot but it hardly makes a dent in it. I'm looking for a couple of million, but where will that come from while council tax is kept so low?"

Councils have a rota of checks for their pavements and highways. Torfaen council sends its officers out on foot to look for damage and defects.

Alan Curtis, a solicitor based in Monmouth, said 60 per cent of all personal injury cases his firm deals with are for "slip or trip" cases.

He said: "The threat of claims makes local authorities provide a better service. They must put a safe system of inspection in place. If they simply did their job there wouldn't be any claims.

"The idea that the law has changed to create a claims culture that wasn't there before is a fallacy.

"The negligence laws were made in 1932."

But he said that advertising by no-win no-fee claims companies had boosted awareness of the law.