Mind the gap - if you want to avoid a load of old cobblers

Tread on a line and marry a swine? You're far more likely to end up with either a twisted ankle or a broken heel than a bad husband.

Particularly if you're in Sheffield.

Women here are FIVE TIMES more likely to come a shoe cropper.

Almost three quarters of women who live or work in the city have had their shoes ruined by cracks in the pavements and streets, according to a new survey.

They end up with at least one pair of shoes damaged beyond repair after a night out a year, and many more pairs that need to be re-heeled or patched up at the cobbler's.

It all adds up to a whopping 200 a year in repairs and replacement shoes. In your adult shoe-wearing lifetime - assessed at 49 years - the cost adds up to a colossal 9,800. Which is enough to buy yourself a car.

Are our pavements wonkier and more neglected that in other cities? Do we have more cobbled streets? Or is it our tram tracks that are tripping us up?

Maybe it's a combination of all three – or perhaps Sheffield women are just not as dainty on their feet. Who knows.Throughout the country, women experience the same problem. They ruin more than 1 billion of shoes a year while going out on the town, according to a survey of 3,000 females.

But while they list injuries varying from twisted ankles, broken toes to cuts and blisters, and blame it on cracked pavements, cobbles, puddles and drains, elsewhere in the country, the average woman will have just two major shoe disasters on a night out each year - an average annual damage bill of just 40 .

According to the poll by makers of the drink Caledonian Cooler, snapped heels are the most usual problem, followed by scuffed leather (20 per cent). A further 12 per cent of women have suffered partial damage to the heels of their shoes, 11 per cent report scuffs or chips on the heel and nine per cent were left stranded by snapped straps.

But the cost of repairs is only the thin end of the wedge.

Of the thousands of women who have suffered a shoe disaster, many say they were so upset at the loss of their beloved shoes they either sat down and cried or got a taxi straight home.

Caledonian Cooler carried out the survey in a bid to raise awareness of women's shoe dilemmas.

They have even set up a website dedicated to the cause. At www.saveourshoes.co.uk, visitors can record their city or town's shoe blackspots. Yet although Sheffield women fare so badly in the shoe damage stakes, none of the city's streets have yet been named and shamed on the site.

I trotted around the city with similarly stiletto-clad student Joanna Tomlin to find the city's worst places for venturing in heels.Joanna Tomlin's view

"When I was asked my opinion on the Shoe Disasters survey, I thought: Surely the streets don't cause that much damage! But while attempting to get about the city in three-inch heels, it all came flooding back to me.

New Years Eve 2007: I had bought a gorgeous pair of black stiletto court shoes. It was the first time I'd worn them and as I walked from one bar to the next, over I went. My heel had got stuck between the slabs and I tripped. There is now a lovely chunk missing from the heel. They are still awaiting repair.

My black stiletto-heeled ankle boots have also suffered the same fate. They also lost the plastic bit at the tip of the heel - but they were lucky enough to find themselves on a visit to the cobblers.

Even after walking briefly down Sheffield's High Street today, I have come back to the office and found a black mark scuffed into the heel of my favourite red suede shoes.

So what are we to do? Well to be entirely honest, I don't know. I mean it's not like I want all town centres to be covered over in concrete, but something needs to be done.

And I'm sure it's not just women in heels that have a problem. Has anyone considered those less steady on their feet? Perhaps the council should seriously consider this as a problem and provide a practical yet attractive solution.

And the girls' verdict . .

. Church Street. The pavements outside the Cathedral have gaps up to two inches wide between them and are very worn and uneven. Crossing them in heels is almost like playing hopscotch. They are also very slippery in the rain.

2. Fargate. You have to hop from cobbled patches to paved areas in search of an even bit. and the street is so busy, you're invariably walking across someone else's path. Only you don't see them until it's almost too late because you're too busy watching where you're putting your feet.

3. Tram tracks. A nightmare to cross quickly in heels. Giant strides are called for.

4. Division Street and Devonshire street. Uneven pavements and road surfacing make this bar haunt treacherous for high heels - particularly after dark.

5. Paradise Square. The square, and many of the little side roads that run parallel with it, are very uneven and incredibly steep - women have to teeter along in tiny, mincing steps to avoid falling over. You feel like a Japanese Geisha.