RESIDENTS in Old Malton are furious over a lack of action by Environment Agency chiefs last week when the River Derwent burstits banks.

River levels rose and water broke onto the green in Old Malton on Wednesday following prolonged wet weather. Residents say though their homes were threatened with flooding, the Agency took no action to install temporary flood barriers, tested last year, on the green.

Dave Beck, chef at the Royal Oak pub in Old Malton, said he was angry no action was taken.

"We really thought it was going to flood again and a lot of residents were very worried," he said.

The Swedish-designed defences, which consist of a barrier made of wood and reinforced plastic sheeting, were erected last year. The barriers were not tested but Environment Agency chiefs told residents they would be stored and brought out whenever there was a flood.

An agency spokesman said as there was no specific threat to homes, no action was taken.

"The weather forecast indicated that only the green in Old Malton would flood which is what happened," he added.

Meanwhile, councillors in York are being urged to press the Government for urgent action to help protect the city from flooding.

The call comes in a motion proposed by Rawcliffe and Skelton member, Coun Mark Waudby, which will be considered at the authority's full meeting at the Guildhall tomorrow night.

The authority is asked to put forward a number of views to the Government "in the strongest possible terms" including:

- That general taxation is the fairest way to provide funding for flood defences across the whole country and that levies placed on individual households, communities or local authorities faced with flooding are "unacceptable"

- Future development on flood plains should be severely restricted and where development goes ahead, the developers should pay a substantial one-off charge towards the area's flood defences

- Future funding arrangements should remain as flexible as possible to allow local authorities and other stakeholders to fund essential flood defence work in threatened areas.

It is argued that new mechanisms should be in place to allow the process of funding flood defence work to be speeded up and to restore public confidence.

Updated: 11:38 Monday, March 04, 2002