DETAILS have been announced of a £1m package to prevent a repeat of the worst excesses of November's disastrous flooding.

More than 60 flood prevention projects will be funded across North Yorkshire, to be paid for by an increase in council tax. Work will start over coming months on schemes to protect roads and houses.

But residents, who have already paid for the floods twice - in lost possessions and soaring insurance premiums - say the £1m is too little and they want further defences in place before this winter.

"The fund the county council has created will enable us to start work at a lot of locations," said North Yorkshire County Council's environmental services director, Mike Moore. "We would hope other authorities will bring forward funding to match our schemes that will enhance the effectiveness of what we can do."

The regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, and the private sector will also be approached for contributions.

Projects will include clearing culverts, widening drains and raising roads, but none of the cash will go towards new flood defences along rivers which burst their banks, leaving whole villages and towns under water last autumn.

Responsibility for more major schemes falls on the Environment Agency, which is funded by the Regional Flood Defence Committee.

Consultation has been announced on projects for Malton and Norton later this month. However, residents point out it will be next year before any work begins, and that means another winter without protection.

"We find it extraordinary that the Regional Flood Defence Committee has admitted there is enough work for a decade in Yorkshire, but has still to fund it," said Derwent Action Group chairman Howard Keal.

"North Yorkshire County Council deserves some credit for supporting a levy to tackle the floods, but we are going to have the same problems back again unless other authorities are prepared to put their hands in their pockets to pay for better flood defences."

Thanks to a £4m grant direct from Westminster, the Environment Ag-ency has just over £5.5m to spend in the region. However, it estimates the figure is a long way short of what it would need to deal with all the at-risk areas across Yorkshire.