A county council has been ordered to pay £320,000 in compensation for failing to protect four siblings who suffered five years of abuse without social services intervening.

The House of Lords had previously struck out the case on the grounds that the local authority, Bedfordshire County Council, could not be held liable.

But the new landmark ruling by the European Court of Human Rights could now have serious implications for other local authorities.

Its ruling stated: "The present case however left no doubt as to the failure of the system to protect the applicants from serious, long term neglect and abuse."

But it also decided that Article 13 of the convention - the right to an effective remedy - was also violated. The court ruled that the applicants did not have a proper way of obtaining an enforceable award of compensation for the damage they suffered.

The court heard that the children involved in the case were born between 1982 and 1988.

They were first referred to the social services by a health visitor in October 1987 because of concerns about the children and were finally placed into emergency foster care in 1992 after their mother saidn that if they were not removed she would harm them.

The European court heard that the youngsters had had to scavage food from bins and were locked in a room where the windows were smeared with excrement.

Lyn Burns, director of social services at the council, spoke about the possible wider consequences from the ruling. She said adults and children who felt their treatment from social services was not appropriate might now be able to claim compensation.

She said of the decision not to take the children into care at an earlier stage: "Clearly in hindsight, we know that it was not the correct decision but at the time it appeared to be the right decision. I would hope it could not happen now."

The NSPCC said: "This ruling is right and proper for children. If a local authority fails to discharge its duties to protect children from abuse then it should, as the European Court of Human Rights found, be liable to pay compensation.

"This case provides a challenge to everyone working with children to do everything within their power to protect children from harm.

"It also should re-invigorate the debate about whether resources available to the statutory sector are sufficient to enable local authorities to undertake the onerous responsibilities expected of them."