Education Secretary David Blunkett is set to approve an extra £1.5 million later this month so a new Selby school can be built away from a flood risk area, the Evening Press can reveal.

The Government cash will bump up the cost of Barlby Hill Top Primary School to more than £3 million - double the original cost.

A North Yorkshire County Council delegation, headed by Selby MP John Grogan, has just returned from a Whitehall meeting, confident the extra money is now "in the bag".

Schools Minister Jacqui Smith told the delegation that her department was viewing the request "very sympathetically" after hearing of the plight of Barlby's homeless flood victims.

She also assured them that a decision would be made "very quickly".

Barlby Hill Top headteacher Graeme Lowe said: "The indications are that we can expect the additional funding to be found, which is fantastic news.

"I have just written to parents, telling them the Government is keen to see the revised project succeed.

"We now expect work to start in the summer and be completed by next Easter."

Mr Blunkett was asked to bail out plans for the new school after they were torpedoed by November's floods.

The original site was only a few yards from the River Ouse floodbanks, and was submerged under two feet of water during the floods crisis.

Residents' protests about the flood threat to the new school forced a re-think by county council chiefs, who decided to switch sites and build on the existing school site, which is above river level.

Education chiefs had planned to offset the cost of the new building by selling the existing school site for housing.

The extra £1.5 million of Government money will compensate for the loss of capital from the now-abandoned housing scheme, and fund temporary classrooms while the school is being built.

Mr Grogan said: "It would be unbearable if the new school was lost. I'm confident we'll get the money."

Updated: 14:04 Tuesday, January 16, 2001