More than one third of Bradford's pavements are classed as not up to standard in Government statistics released today.

The Department of Transport's national road survey up to the end of last year shows 37 per cent of paths inspected in 2003-04 were unsatisfactory - the highest level in West Yorkshire.

It comes as the Council's insurers pay around £2 million in compensation to people who claim after incidents on roads and pavements.

And the cash-strapped Council says it is struggling to meet the costs of maintenance.

But today the Council said more recent figures showed vast improvements and the level had dropped to just 12 per cent.

The Department of Transport's survey of a selection of the district's highways shows 37 per cent of footpaths, one per cent of A roads, 1.6 percent of B and C roads and 2.6 per cent of 'unclassified' roads were unsatisfactory.

In Calderdale, six per cent of pavements, 7.4 percent of A roads, 7.7 percent of B and C roads and 24.3 percent of "unclassified" roads need repairing. And in Kirklees, the totals are two per cent of pavements, 20.9 percent of B and C roads and 8.5 per cent of "unclassified" roads.

Highways teams discovered whether roads and footpaths were in a poor state by carrying out visual surveys throughout the country during the year.

The figures were published in the Department of Transport's National Road Maintenance Condition Survey.

But Coun Anne Hawkesworth, executive member for the environment, said the road surveys were of sections done in alphabetical order and did not represent the situation throughout the district.

She added: "The condition of Bradford's roads compares favourably with many other districts in the survey.

"We are currently in the top 25 per cent of the table which gives statistics on the state of roads and footpaths in local authorities of England.

"Many of the results show Bradford's highways network to be in a reasonable condition compared with many others. Bradford like most other highways authorities needs to be able to do an awful lot more.

Nationally, there are 59,000km of damaged roads, according to official

statistics.

It represents 21 per cent of the road network - and has sparked calls for the Government to abandon its road-building programme until repairs are undercontrol.

Local authorities in England spent £1.95 million on highway maintenance in 2002-03 - yet they claim there is a £1.1 billion a year shortfall in roadrepairs.