WHEN Coronation Street's amiable idler, the long-gone Stan Ogden, sued for damages after tripping on a pavement, it made an amusing soap-opera storyline.

But in real life the situation is far from funny for councils which find themselves coping with hundreds of such claims -- and paying out huge sums.

And as Blackburn with Darwen's annual bill for pay-outs passes the £1million-mark and the cost of meeting claims and awards means the the county council has to set aside £3million a year, the boom in claims is blamed on the arrival "no win, no fee" lawyers on the legal scene in recent years.

But how many of the claims are genuine or trumped up? That is a question that Blackburn with Darwen Council aims to answer -- and slash the cost of pay-outs.

It is employing private investigators to probe claims and beefing up its own staff to identify potential accident spots and collect evidence to fight spurious claims.

It is also warning that people making bogus claims for trips and tumbles that they will be found out and prosecuted.

It is absolutely right to do so, especially when at present it successfully contests only a third of claims and sees that the kind of action it is now embarking on saves other local authorities considerable sums as they win in far more cases -- twice as often in the case of Hartlepool for example.

Blackburn with Darwen's preferred method will be to increase the number of claims handlers, target extra resources at high-accident areas and have inspectors visit the site of every claim. If, as elsewhere, this pro-active approach cuts the damages' bill, taxpayers will be saved a small fortune in pay-outs and insurance costs.

But it is vital that it is coupled also with improved maintenance of the streets and pavements and prompt repair action. For fewer dodgy roads and footpaths will inevitably lead to fewer dodgy claims -- and the legitimate ones met as they deserve to be if the council fails to live up to its responsibility.