CONTROVERSIAL plans for a tax on North Yorkshire householders at risk of flooding have been abandoned.

Floods Minister Elliot Morley was today announcing that levying the tax to pay for new defences was "not a runner". He was instead expected to opt for a one-off charge on developers who want to build on flood plains.

The alternative is for the cost of building new defences to be met by taxpayers across the country, which is the existing system.

The minister has been carrying out a review of the way some of the funding for defences is provided.

The most controversial option had been the introduction a flood levy on homeowners who live in "at risk" areas, which would almost certainly have applied to York, Selby and dozens of villages hit by repeated flooding over the past three years. Residents and civic leaders argued it was unfair for people who had already suffered the agony of flooding to be hit in the pocket, and Mr Morley has now agreed this is not the way forward.

The minister was also expected to abolish Regional Flood Defence Committees, which currently raise some of the funds for flood schemes through a levy on local authorities.

The committees are expected to be replaced by Regional Customer Bodies, which would receive money direct from the Government.

Meanwhile, the Government has revealed it is not yet able to approve a flood defence scheme for Stamford Bridge because the Environment Agency has not yet fully provided it with the estimated costs.

The Evening Press reported yesterday that the project needed to start in May if businesses and homes were to be protected by the start of the next winter flooding season in December, but that the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had not yet agreed a grant to help meet the costs.

The agency insisted it was still "striving" to begin work in May, but confirmed work could not begin on the ground until such approval was granted. Businesses and parish leaders said there must be no delay in beginning the scheme, and East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight said he would seek an urgent meeting with Mr Morley to stress the need for a swift decision.

Now Defra has issued a statement saying it understood the agency expected to have better information on the estimated cost of the works in the next couple of weeks. "As soon as that is to hand, Defra should be in a position to take a decision on grant aid," said a spokeswoman.

She also revealed that the agency had only just submitted the final consents needed for work on one bank of the river in the past week or so.

She stressed that Defra had not been waiting for the consents, but had been working closely with the agency throughout the application process.

Updated: 10:11 Wednesday, March 12, 2003