MAJOR investment for flood defences in North Yorkshire and the North East has been announced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

More than 47,500 homes in the Yorkshire and the North-East region will benefit from improved flood protection thanks to the funding.

DEFRA’s Flood Defence Grant in Aid is used alongside partnership funding to pay for flood alleviation and coastal erosion schemes.

The announcement sees more than £135m of Government money being allocated to flood protection and coastal erosion work in the region over the next two years.

This includes funding towards 112 flood protection and coastal erosion developments– 72 across Yorkshire and 40 in the North East – as well as other work such as mapping, investigative studies, and flood forecasting.

In the North-East, work will also be carried out to Middlesbrough’s Beacon Beck £930,000 project, which will receive £75,000 in 2014; The £600,000 North Ormesby Flood Alleviation Scheme will receive £100,000 this year and £500,000 the year after; and an ongoing £26m flood defence scheme in Redcar is due to receive £25,000 this year.

A town wall study and construction scheme in Hartlepool, due to cost £1.48m, will receive £280,000; and a £2.19m Skinningrove coastal protection works project will get £210,000 this year and £1.7m in 2014.

In North Yorkshire, a £3.5m Northallerton flood alleviation scheme will get a £245,000 grant; a £1.95m Pickering flood scheme will benefit from £83,000; and Ripon will get £10,000 toward its £13m flood alleviation scheme.

Sandsend coast protection scheme, due to cost £9.3m, will receive almost £1.7m this year and £2.6m in 2014; and Whitby Harbour works will get grants over three years of £100,000, £500,000 and almost £2.7m towards the £7,670,000 scheme.