Highways bosses in North Yorkshire, who are working to repair flood-damaged roads and bridges, have claimed that there is a north-south divide in the government's allocation of funds.

North Yorkshire County Council was initially pleased to have been given £1.2m, of the £3.3m it asked for, to repair roads and bridges ravaged by last year's floods.

But closer analysis of the figures released by the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions has shown that almost £16m of the £23m it has made available nationally has gone to the south east.

North Yorkshire's bid consisted of almost 200 schemes totalling £3.3m - broken down as £2.1m for roads and £1.2m for repairs to bridges and retaining walls.

But the council claims that because its local transport plan budget for 2001 to 2002 increased from £8.75m to £21m it was not given as much extra financial help as other authorities, despite suffering badly during November's floods.

Kent and Hampshire were the counties given the most extra help to repair flood damage, each getting more than £5m.

But Steve Warren, spokesman for the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR), said support was directed at authorities which were facing the highest costs in relation to resources available locally.

He said no authority was allocated the full amount it asked for.

He said: "Every year authorities get a road maintenance budget, as part of the local transport plan, which last year was considerably increased.

"North Yorkshire got a £13.4m capital allocation for road maintenance in 2001 to 2002 compared to £5.7m in the previous year.

"Councils are expected to use some of their road maintenance budget in emergencies such as floods.

"Those authorities where the repairs would cost more than 15 per cent of that budget, such as in North Yorkshire, were given extra support."

Mike Moore, director of environmental services at North Yorkshire County Council, said that the road maintenance budget was increased so substantially because vital work needed to be done to improve the road network.

He said: "North Yorkshire had a very good settlement from its local transport plan.

"That itself was based upon need.

"We have a pretty poor rural network out there, which is why we had a good settlement.

"But instead of getting into the backlog of maintenance problems we find ourselves, because of this poor (floods) settlement, having to dip into the money to do emergency work."

Councillor Peter Sowray, executive member from environmental services, said: "We are now in a very disappointing position of having to delay £2m worth of work to improve the quality of our roads and bridges until next year.

"The wider view of the money allocated by the government presents a very disappointing picture with almost £16m of the £23m going to the south east.

"Our own information is that Yorkshire and Humberside was one of the regions worst affected by the flooding.

"In that context it is very disappointing that the government didn't set aside more cash for North Yorkshire."

Updated: 08:34 Wednesday, August 08, 2001