Pavements and footways in market towns and villages will be repaired amid escalating concerns that North Yorkshire County Council could be hit by compensation claims if people trip over uneven and damaged paths.

Many footpaths have not had major repairs for up to 30 years as they have not been a priority in the annual £30m highways maintenance programme.

But their condition has deteriorated to such an extent that the council has allocated money from its central funds to cope with the scale of the repairs now needed.

The £1m sum is the largest investment of its kind ever made by the authority and will pay for almost 125 miles of pavements and footpaths across the county to be repaired using a technique which employs a mix of bitumen, stone and sand to smooth over uneven surfaces.

More than £500,000 is used each year from highways maintenance budgets on the technique, although the additional money has had to be allocated from the council''s central funds to cope with the amount of repair work.

The council's assistant director for highways and transportation, David Bowe, said: "We are looking to prevent the claims culture and that is why we are investing this money.

"If we can show that we have a robust inspection scheme and money has been spent efficiently, then the courts will hopefully look favourably on us if a claim is launched."

Mr Bowe said microsurfacing was not a short-term repair to avoid replacing damaged sections of pathways.

He said: "There have been significant advances in microsurfacing in recent years and more and more local authorities are looking to use it now.

"We need to target our resources as effectively and efficiently as possible. The repairs could now last for up to 10 years, and we may even be able to then use microsurfacing again to carry out the maintenance of these paths."

An average of between £300,000 and £350,000 is paid out annually in third party compensation claims by the county council for injuries on its highways, although Mr Bowe stressed that bills for other local authorities were far higher and often cost millions of pounds.

More than 40 council inspectors are identifying the pavements and footways which are most in need of repairs across North Yorkshire's 3,120 sq miles.

Coun John Fort, executive member for highways, said: "We have many miles of footways in our towns and villages. There is a continuing programme of maintenance work, as you would expect.

"But with this extra pot of money, we can identify problems almost before they happen, and initiate some quick remedial work which will prevent more serious problems developing later."

About a third of the £30m annual highways maintenance budget is spent on the county's 1,800-mile network of paths, with the remainder earmarked for almost 5,600 miles of roads.

The £1m will be spent in the next 18 months, although the majority of the work will be done during next spring and summer.