CALLS are being made to water down Worcestershire's planned £12 million roads overhaul - to sink some cash into the pavements instead.

Back in December your Worcester News revealed how the county council is launching a major project to improve the roads network called 'Driving Home'.

The scheme will see record sums spent on urban and rural unclassified roads, giving them a mix of improvements including full resurfacing, odd patch work and surface dressing.

But a cohort of Liberal Democrat and Green councillors say £2 million of that should be earmarked towards sprucing up Worcestershire's most tatty pavements.

A motion is being voted on in a full council meeting tomorrow calling for the fund to be sliced off towards the footways.

Green Councillor Matthew Jenkins, one of a group of six putting their names to the motion, said: "We know from door knocking in areas like Battenhall and St Stephen that the pavements are often mentioned as an issue, more so actually than the roads.

"For some people it can be quite a big problem, we feel very much that as this money has been found for the roads some of it should go on the pavements.

"It will be quite difficult for people to argue against this, I think."

Last winter Lib Dem group leader Councillor Liz Tucker, who has also signed the motion, called the condition of the pavements in her Pershore patch "shocking".

Between 2001 and 2010 the average yearly footway spend was £2 million a year and in recent years, it even went up to £3 million under a special programme.

But the last budget for it was £840,000 and the county's pavement network spans a whopping 1,972 miles.

The Conservative leadership says since 2010 more than £9 million has been sunk into pavements, but has admitted it has some sympathy with the request.

Councillor John Smith, the cabinet member responsible for highways, said: "We're sympathetic to the argument and will be looking at the motion very carefully."

The 'Driving Home' project was drawn up after roads emerged once again as one of the public's top priorities for Worcestershire during roadshow surveys, ranking alongside social care for adults and children.

Under the plans around £10 million will come from borrowing and £2 million from the New Homes Bonus, cash from central Government as a reward for overseeing new development.

Bosses say the roads spending will focus on areas "in and around where people live and work".

The motion calls for "up to £2 million" to be spent on "maintaining and improving public footways across the county".

* See more about the Driving Home programme HERE.