A FLOOD victim may be protected from further inundation after all, following another Environment Agency U-turn.

Jo Barry was originally told early last year that her home and business premises would be included in an agency scheme to defend Stamford Bridge from a third devastating flood.

Then the agency suddenly took her property out of the project, saying it had made a mistake in its calculations that the flood wall complied with Government-enforced cost-benefit criteria. Only properties in The Square on the other side of the River Derwent would be protected, said the agency.

But after strong protests the agency agreed to look again at its proposals.

Now it has come up with a different project which would again defend Mrs Barry's property, along with Butter-crambe Road and some other vulnerable properties in the vicinity.

However, the new scheme will only go ahead if it wins financial backing later this month from the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee, and is also approved by East Riding of Yorkshire Council planners and the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Mrs Barry, whose property was flooded in both 1999 and 2000 said she was pleased to have been brought back into a flood defence scheme, but said it was far too soon to believe it would happen.

"I won't rest easy until they have started digging the ground.

"There have been far too many twists and turns in this story," she said.

Meanwhile, the agency has said it still cannot include the historic Cornmill restaurant in the project, following the review, because it would increase the costs too much and also have unacceptable environmental consequences.

A spokesman said it anticipated work might start on the village defences scheme in the early part of next year, with completion in early 2004.

District councillor and parish council chairman Hilary Saynor said she was delighted that both sides of the river bank were once again set to be defended, provided various organisations gave the new scheme their backing. However, she was anxious about the timescale for the construction of defences.

Updated: 11:33 Monday, July 01, 2002