Flood victims from Malton and Norton handed in a portfolio of photographs to officials at No 10 Downing Street today.

They travelled to London in a specially-chartered 'battle bus' to present Prime Minister Tony Blair and Agriculture Minister Elliot Morley with an open letter calling for cash to be made available for an immediate start on the area's £5m flood defences.

They marked their visit to Downing Street by presenting officials with a symbolic sandbag.

Their message: the Government has less than 72 hours to save Ryedale.

That is the time left before members of the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee meet on Friday to decide on a floods levy on local authorities which could mean Ryedale's flood defence scheme being fast-tracked.

Flood victims fear that without government cash, defence chiefs would be unwilling to increase the levy by the amount necessary for an early start on the scheme - up to 40 per cent - even though the cash would be reimbursed by the Government after a year.

That would mean delays of up to a year in beginning the defences - leaving hundreds of homes in Malton and Norton at the mercy of floods for years to come, possibly until spring 2004.

Today's action follows the announcement by Mr Morley last Friday that the Government would meet £4.4 million of the £4.9 million cost of battling November's floods and repairing the damage they caused in Yorkshire.

But that did not include cash to meet the full cost of defences to protect the area against future flooding - meaning regional flood defence chiefs will face a funding gap if they opt to go ahead with the scheme straight away.

Today's delegation was hoping to pressurise the Government into making 100 per cent funding available immediately for those defences.

Ryedale MP John Greenway, who organised today's meeting of flood victims with the Agriculture Minister, said: "We are asking Elliot Morley to ensure that, by one means or another, John Prescott's commitment to a flood defence scheme for Malton and Norton is honoured."

Fifty people were on the bus to London, including 40 householders who had been flooded out of their homes twice in less than two years. One victim, Howard Keal, said: "It was bad enough the first time. The second time was a bitter blow. We are desperate to avoid it happening again."

His wife, Di Keal, secretary of the St Nicholas Street Residents' Association, says in her letters to Mr Blair and Mr Morley: "Since the first severe floods less than two years ago not a brick has been laid in defence of Norton, Malton or Old Malton - even though the two floods have caused £35 million damage.

"Funding for defences must be put in place by the Government now so that the (flood defence) scheme is voted through by the Regional Flood Defence Committee. You have less than 72 hours to save Ryedale."

The delegation presented a letter and a portfolio of photographs to officials at Number 10 before moving on to the House of Commons for meetings with Mr Morley, Mr Greenway and Liberal Democrat Don Foster.

Updated: 13:15 Tuesday, January 30, 2001