A DECISION on funding for a multi-million pound flood defence project will be announced in the next few days.

North Yorkshire County Council has had to reapply to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for the scheme, to protect Northallerton and Brompton.

The project would mean embankments are built to hold back floodwaters from Turker Beck, at Northallerton, and Ing Beck, Winton Beck and North Beck, at Brompton.

The plans were drawn up after businesses and homes were flooded in 2000.

A flood storage tank would also be built at Bullamoor, on the outskirts of Northallerton.

Flood alleviation schemes across the country have been shelved because of a lack of funding.

Defra told county council staff it could not afford to fund the whole scheme in this financial year and asked the authority to resubmit the project in two phases.

Mike Roberts, head of highways operations at the council, said the authority was committed to the defences, but campaigners fear the delays could be costly.

Dr John Gibbins, who has campaigned for the past six years to get the area protected, said: "Northallerton has been sacrificed for too long for this to happen again, and local campaigning bodies will not sit back and let this 'delay' become more permanent.

"It has been lucky for those with the duty of care that Northallerton has only experienced near misses since 2000."

Dr Gibbins, from Water End, Brompton, added: "If this delay leads to any serious financial loss, residents may seek redress in the courts.

"Nobody in authority can now say they did not know the dangers, nor what was needed, only that they did not take the protection of Northallerton nearly seriously enough.

"Northallerton has waited its turn only to be sent to the end of the queue. It is just not good enough."

Mr Roberts said that if funding was agreed by Defra, work on the first phase of the project could start by early autumn, subject to agreements with contractors.

He said: "We as a county council have led this project from the outset.

"We are totally committed to it - it is a priority.

"We are doing everything we can to secure the funding, but it is in the hands of Defra because they have the money.