Tony Blair says extra Government cash should mean accelerated flood defence schemes - but he will not press for projects along the Derwent to be speeded up.

The Prime Minister insisted today in a letter to the Evening Press, owners of thisisyork, that it is for the Environment Agency to decide which schemes to promote - and on their timing.

However, he added: "No doubt...they will consider if advantage can be taken of the additional funding package for schemes on the River Derwent."

Mr Blair was responding to a letter from Press editor Liz Page, which was handed to him by chief reporter Mike Laycock during a flying visit to York at the height of the flooding crisis.

We also gave him a dossier containing articles published since the launch in October of the paper's Save Ryedale and Stamford Bridge from Flooding campaign.

At that stage, the agency was not intending to implement flood defence schemes in Ryedale and Stamford Bridge any more quickly.

Within days of the letter being handed over, an extra £51 million for flood defences was announced by the Government. More recently the Environment Agency revealed that it is now aiming to bring forward a major scheme to protect Norton, Malton and Old Malton by a year.

In his letter, Mr Blair expressed his "heartfelt sympathy" to Evening Press readers who suffered in the floods, adding: "I have seen for myself just what the impact has been around the country."

He said a major element of the extra £51 million was designed to accelerate the river flood defence works. The time taken to prepare such schemes was naturally a matter of concern to people affected.