A LEADING York councillor has pledged to back a village's bid for badly-needed flood defences.

The Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee (YRFDC) will decide next month whether to help fund a scheme to protect Elvington from flooding by the River Derwent.

The Evening Press revealed last week how the parish council, assisted by City of York Council, had come up with the £150,000 scheme for an embankment and penstock to stop the river backing up a beck and flooding the village.

The parish council said the scheme was badly needed, after 120 homes in the centre had been repeatedly stranded by floodwaters blocking roads into the village. It said even emergency services had been unable to get in, raising serious health and safety issues.

The Environment Agency is unable to fund defences for Elvington using Government cash, because the village does not meet strict national priority criteria. But the YRFDC might be able to use money raised in a levy on local authorities across Yorkshire, which is not subject to the same restrictions.

Councillor Andrew Waller, York and North Yorkshire's representative on the committee, said: "I believe the scheme is appropriate for funding from the levy.

"It has been instigated by local residents, is feasible and will provide real benefits."

However, he anticipated other schemes would be put forward by other communities around the region, and only £340,000 was available from the levy this year for schemes across the whole of Yorkshire.

The parish has accepted it might be unrealistic to expect almost half the entire budget to be allocated to its scheme in one year, but suggested funding could be phased over a longer period - for example, £30,000 per annum for five years.

Coun Waller agreed that this was a possible way forward, and suggested that the city council, while unable to provide funding, might be able to assist in other ways.

One possibility was that the parish could be given a loan so that the works could get under way, to be repaid as funding came in from the committee.

Coun Waller said he was due to attend a sub-committee meeting later this month which would lay out the principles for the allocation of funding, which would have a crucial bearing on Elvington's chances of success.

He wanted "seed money" to be provided to get a number of schemes started across the region, allowing communities to seek additional funding from other sources subsequently.

Updated: 09:59 Friday, March 04, 2005