TONY Blair last night personally pledged to resolve the "who pays for what" row over urgently needed repairs to railway bridge crash barriers.

The announcement signals victory for The Northern Echo's bridge safety campaign launched after the Great Heck rail crash in North Yorkshire last year.

Since then, Railtrack, local authorities and the Highways Agency have been at loggerheads over who should fix crumbling barriers.

Exasperated safety campaigners warned the dispute threatened to cause a similar rail disaster.

Ten people died at Great Heck when a Land Rover careered off the M62 on to the East Coast Main Line and into the path of a Newcastle-to-London train.

Some local authorities are so worried about the state of North-East bridge barriers that they have pressed on with work regardless of who will ultimately pay.

But now it seems the arguments are to be ended once and for all - after the Prime Minister was put on the spot by The Northern Echo.

Asked by us during his televised press conference yesterday if he would act, Mr Blair promised a speedy response.

And hours later a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said the Highways Agency, Railtrack and the Department for Transport were working "to produce a protocol of responsibility for the costs of the work at places where roads and railway lines meet.

"A final agreement will be announced in the autumn."

The strength of the Government's efforts to end the squabbling could become clear within weeks, when Railtrack is hit with a £100,000 bill for repair work in North Yorkshire.

It is understood the new protocol will require Railtrack to pay its share of the enormous cost of improving scores of crumbling bridge barriers. But local authorities - many of which have been forced to undertake work as an urgent matter of public safety - remain sceptical.

North Yorkshire County Council will be the first to test the system when it asks Railtrack for a contribution to a £200,000 programme of improvements to four bridges over the East Coast main line.

The work at Dalton-on-Tees, Danby Wiske, Thirsk Station and Thorpefield is likely to end next month.

Brian Jones, of the council's environmental services department, said: "We don't know if this protocol will actually work until we send Railtrack the bill in September."

Durham County Council has completed work at four danger spots: Plawsworth, near Chester-le-Street; Browney Lane, at Burnigill; and Littleburn, near Durham City; and the bridge carrying the A689 over the Stockton-to-Darlington line, near Sedgefield.

Three more bridges have also now been identified for work: at Bradbury, Ricknell Lane near Aycliffe, and on an unclassified road between Sunderland Bridge and Hett.

A council spokesman said: "We carried out some work at our own cost even though we thought it wasn't our responsibility.

"We have identified these other sites for further work and it now just comes down to funding and who is really responsible."

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh, who is on the Conservatives' front bench transport team, pledged to ensure the Government kept its promises. The issue is also likely to be raised at the Tory conference in October.

"We shall watch and harry the Government at every turn until they make the railways and roads safe," she said.

"As a regular railway user, I would expect action to be taken. This is a very serious issue and it has implications for passengers and freight if railway lines are frequently going to be disrupted."

Read more about the Railway bridges campaign here.