Agriculture Minister Elliot Morley today announced that the Government will pay £4.4 million of the £4.9 million bill for Yorkshire's flooding disaster.

He said the money opened up the prospect for fast-tracking of Ryedale's proposed £4 million flood defence scheme.

But the fate of the project to protect Malton and Norton will hang in the balance for another week until a meeting of the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee next Friday.

Local authority representatives from across Yorkshire balked last month at a proposed 63 per cent increase in their levy to the committee, which was needed to bring forward the scheme.

The Government cash means the necessary increase will now be considerably less - probably between about 35 and 40 per cent - but it is still a hefty rise which might necessitate some council tax increase or service cuts.

But Mr Morley, speaking during a visit to North Yorkshire today, said he expected the local authorities to be prepared to come to the aid of flood-stricken areas.

"The Government has done its bit; now we expect the flood defence committee to do its bit," he said.

The decision comes just a fortnight after the Evening Press hand-delivered an open letter to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's office, saying it was time for the Government to pay towards the cost of the floods.

We also presented Prime Minister Tony Blair and Mr Morley with a dossier highlighting Ryedale's plight and calling for Government cash support, when they visited York during the flood.

Mr Morley said today that the national flood task force, which he chaired, had been influenced by the paper's dossier.

He said the Prime Minister had been determined not to forget the flood victims, once the national press had lost interest in the story.

He said the £4.4 million was mostly on top of the £51 million extra cash aid announced by John Prescott during the floods.

He said it helped meet exceptional costs incurred by the agency, including the giant portable pumps brought in from Holland.

"This is a big cash injection and a big commitment from the Government.

"This takes quite a bit of pressure off the flood defence committee in relation to their levy setting and I am confident they will respond as positively as we have." Norton flood victim Howard Keal, who is chairman of the Nicholas Street Residents Association, today gave the Minister's announcement a cautious welcome, but said: "We are a long way away from opening the champagne."

He said the delegation from Ryedale to Whitehall next week would still be pressing the Government for 100 per cent funding of flood defences for Malton, Old Malton and Norton.

"The announcement falls a long way short of fulfilling Mr Prescott's commitment to seeing defences put in place as a matter of urgency," he said. "But whatever happens, the flood defence committee has a moral obligation to vote through the funding next Friday."

Updated: 11:18 Friday, January 26, 2001