Calne Town Council is losing its battle to get a stretch of paving repaired because the county council won't pay up.

Town councillors have been concerned for years about the dangerous state of the pavement along London Road opposite the White Hart pub.

Some paving stones have sunk and others have risen and tilted, causing many people to trip and subsequently complain to the town council.

Pavement maintenance is the responsibility of Wiltshire County Council but it has said it has no funds.

Town clerk Ann Kingdon wrote to the chief executive Dr Keith Robinson in October asking if the county council was willing to share the cost of repairs with the town council.

The town council had offered to pay up to £10,000 less £800 for the tendering process for the work if the county council would pick up the £12,000 balance.

The offer was only available provided the work was carried out by the end of the current financial year.

But the county council declined the offer, saying it was not able to allocate funding for footway enhancement work.

Tracey Carter, assistant director operations of the environmental services department, said the county council might not be able to allocate the funding in the 2004/05 budget either.

She said: "I regret that I can offer little prospect of this work being completed in the foreseeable future.

"In the meantime the paving will be regularly inspected and any defects made safe."

Mrs Kingdon said the response from the county council was extremely disappointing but not unexpected.

She hopes to continue working with the county council to find a solution.