A FLOOD-STRUCK community has reacted angrily to the Government's gesture for funding flood defences this year.

Countryside Minister Elliot Morley announced yesterday that just £2m would be allocated for flood defences across the country this financial year.

He said that, due to design, evaluation and planning permission, most flood defences could not be built until next year.

In the next four years, £51m will be made available, but in the Wear Valley area of County Durham, which has been hit by floods twice in five months, people are calling for more immediate help.

Director of finance at Wear Valley District Council, Eddie Scrivens, warned this week that the authority would be in "severe difficulties" without some form of financial aid.

The council is still counting the cost of June's flood and is pressing the Environment Agency for emergency defences to be constructed along the River Gaunless, near Bishop Auckland.

Mr Scrivens said: "This money just won't touch anywhere. It's nothing.

"An extra £49m on top of that is still very, very little in relation to the whole problem.

"I wouldn't like to see the money all going to the South of the country either," he said.

Norma Cooper, whose home in South Church was flooded in June, and narrowly escaped flooding a second time this week, said she was disgusted at the Government's gesture.

Planned flood defences for Bishop Auckland could cost in the region of £1m to £2m.

She said: "It's going to come to the point, if we are flooded again, nobody will insure us, so we're left with a house we can't sell or walk away from.

"Look at all the money spent on the Millennium Dome. It was just a Government folly; what about the real people?

"People are suffering post traumatic stress round here. Children are having nightmares and are terrified to go back in their homes.

"Something needs doing now."

An Environment Agency spokesman said it could not comment on the Government's allocation for this financial year and at this stage could not say where, when or how the £51m would be spent.

"Our priority is to deal with the current flood events. When the emergency is over, the agency will be reviewing it's flood defence requirements right across the country," said the spokesman.

Read more about the floods, get essential advice and see the pictures from the region here.