BETTER late than never.

Bolton Council's new action plan for dealing with road repairs sounds like basic common sense to us.

It's hardly revolutionary to decide that it is better to fix roads and pavements well before they can become potential hazards.

Unfortunately, it has taking a soaring compensation bill of more than £1 million a year to make town hall bosses reach this conclusion.

We fully understand environment director Ray Jefferson's explanation that the more they pay in compensation, the less they can spend on highway management.

But if the problems had been tackled properly in the first place this vicious circle which Mr Jefferson describes would not have happened.

The make-do-and-mend measures which have operated until now have obviously not worked. The compensation bill bears testament to that.

At last there are going to be regular checks on key streets and a swift response to serious road defects. It's just a pity it has taken so long to come to what is a glaringly obvious conclusion.