NEARLY two years have passed since the first of the twin floods which devastated large areas of North Yorkshire. So the news that money to improve flood defences is finally on its way has been received with as much relief as joy.

Malton and Norton residents must be delighted that work to strengthen the floodwalls and earth banks along the River Derwent could start as early as next week. At one point, it looked as though that day would never arrive.

This time last year, when the ground was still waterlogged from the second floods, members of the Yorkshire Flood Defence Committee were locked in arguments about the costs.

Those councils whose areas had escaped the flooding were unhappy that their residents should be required more council tax to pay for defences many miles away.

It has taken long hours of negotiation to persuade them of the fundamental need for a regional approach to flood defences. This time round it was York, Ryedale, Stockbridge and Wakefield which suffered. Next time - and, climate experts insist, next time will be here sooner than we think - flooding could affect other areas of Yorkshire.

This region has more rivers than most. Its flood defences were among the first to be constructed, and are now in desperate need of renewal.

The flood defence committee has realised that a long term approach is required. Raising extra money for the most urgent schemes, Malton and Norton's included, is only the start. Most of Yorkshire's defences need an overhaul.

The cost is enormous. The Environment Agency has more than doubled its original estimate for the capital investment needed in Yorkshire by 2010, from £93 million to £208 million.

Council tax payers cannot meet this bill alone. The Government has shown willing by putting up more than half the cost of the Malton and Norton scheme. Ministers must commit to a long-term rolling programme of funding if Yorkshire's residents are to be properly protected from the increasing flood threat.

Updated: 10:15 Friday, January 11, 2002