The Evening Press today launches a campaign to Save Ryedale From Flooding.

As we exclusively revealed recently, experts believe it would cost £4 million to protect Malton and Norton - and £1.3 million to defend Pickering - from another disastrous flood.

We believe that £5.3 million is a price worth paying to prevent a repeat of the misery and disruption caused last year when the River Derwent and Pickering Beck both burst their banks.

But residents strongly believe that other works - to cut back on overgrown bankside vegetation and dredge silt from the river beds - can and should be done now to help reduce the risk of another flood.

Meanwhile, downstream at Stamford Bridge, which was also badly flooded last year, businesses and residents are waiting to see what action can be taken to avoid another disaster - and we include this community in our campaign as well.

Our petition demands urgent action to prevent flooding in all the towns and villages.

Ryedale MP John Greenway today threw his full support behind the campaign - and agreed to present the petition to the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee in the New Year.

He said: "It's a great opportunity for local people to demonstrate the importance they attach to ensuring that flood defences in the area are strengthened."

He warned that with water tables already very high on the North York Moors following recent heavy rainfalls, he was extremely concerned there might be further flooding this winter.

Environment Agency officers are spending the next nine months or so analysing the two schemes put forward by consultants for Pickering and Malton/Norton, prior to making recommendations to the committee next summer.

Mr Greenway said it could not be assumed that the schemes would go ahead, even though the committee was already supportive in principle of the Malton and Norton project. The financial support of local authorities from across Yorkshire was still needed.

Norton resident Di Keal and Pickering householder Topsy Clinch, whose homes were badly flooded last year, launched our campaign today from the banks of the River Derwent at Norton.

Di said she and her family had to live away from their home in St Nicholas Street for ten months last year while it underwent extensive repairs. "It was almost a year out of our lives.

"When the flood struck, every room downstairs was totally wrecked."

And she says the possibility that it might happen all over again was always at the back of her mind, and it also worried her three children Molly, Hannah and Emily.

Topsy, who has only just finished re-carpeting her home in Beck Isle 19 months after the Pickering flood, said she was worried every time there was heavy rain and the beck started to rise. "You think 'Oh my God, not again'," she said.

We hope readers everywhere - not just in the areas affected - will sign and send the petition coupons back to us.

But we also hope pubs, shops and other businesses will make copies available on their counters.

If you are willing to carry a copy, please contact our Malton office on 01653 690690 and we will get one straight out to you. Our office reception at 22, Yorkersgate, Malton, will also have a form available to sign.

Click here for the story of a nightmare come true, plus a printable copy of our petition form