Countryside Minister Elliot Morley has praised the City of York for its heroic efforts in dealing with the recent floods.

He also confirmed that urban river flood defence schemes are to be given greater priority, and that Malton's defence improvements would be speeded up since the town had now been hit twice in three years by floods.

But Mr Morley, who recently received a dossier from the Evening Press in support of our campaign for flood defences to be installed in Ryedale, said there were still technical problems to solve.

And he warned that further floods could hit North Yorkshire in January and February, the two winter months which normally have the highest rainfall.

He stressed that the land was already saturated and water would just run off into the river systems.

The Minister singled out York for how it dealt with the floods and the recovery operation afterwards.

He praised the local authority for helping flood-hit residents by providing skips for water-logged sofas, carpets and other belongings.

He said: "The response by the Environment Agency, local authorities and armed forces in the face of the worst nationwide floods since 1947 has been

magnificent. What we need to do now is to ensure that the clear-up is handled with the same speed and efficiency.

"We want to make sure that examples of good practice in terms of helping people and dealing with the problems is disseminated among local authorities."

The Met Office's radar system for rainfall is to be upgraded to get better forecasts of impending severe weather.

English Heritage is also likely to provide money for flood-hit listed

buildings.

The Government has announced an extra £51 million over four years to increase its flood defence budget to £114 million by 2003/04.

Two million pounds extra will be spent before April, £17 million has

been allocated for each of the next financial years, and £15 million in

2003/04.