THE leader of Bolton Council has vowed to make repairing town centre pavements and potholes a "very high priority."

Cllr Bob Howarth said: "If some money does come available then we will have to sort out this problem."

The BEN revealed yesterday that the council has paid out more than £430,000 in claims from people who have tripped over in town centre streets over the last seven years.

The highest payout was for accidents on Great Moor Street. The other streets were Deansgate, Newport Street, Blackhorse Street, Bradshawgate, Bridge Street and Knowsley Street.

Meanwhile ,Cllr John Walsh, deputy leader of the council's Conservative group, said he believes the money which was spent on re-vamping Victoria Square could have been spent on repairing pavement flags.

Unsightly

He said: "Surely, £1 million could have been better spent on repairing flags so that people are not tripping up.

"It is no good having a pleasant square when there are unsightly pavements nearby."

But Cllr Howarth, replied that the council had a European grant which specifically had to be spent on the Victoria Square project.

"We had £340,000 from European funding which could only be spent for that purpose.

"Is Cllr Walsh saying we should have turned down that money?"

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