YORK council's contribution towards regional flood defence funding has more than halved - to only £14,500.

The figure compares with nearly £35,500 stumped up last year.

This year's sum is part of £342,000 paid out by local councils across the Yorkshire region as part of a "top-up" levy raised through council tax payments.

The amount paid by all Yorkshire councils is falling by similar levels to York's contribution - last year they all paid out £832,000 in total.

North Yorkshire County Council's contribution has dropped from £115,000 to £47,500.

Yorkshire will get an estimated £35 million from the Government for flood protection work, with the levy a voluntary additional contribution.

The levy amounts were decided at a Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee regional flood defence meeting last week.

City of York Councillor Andrew Waller, York and North Yorkshire's representative on the committee, said the lower figures did not mean that flood defences were now a lesser priority at the Guildhall, but that finding more would have meant service cuts in other areas.

"Flooding is not a lower priority," he said. "The regional local authorities have discussed this and York is not unique in having to come down this year.

"All the councils said they could not afford to put any extra money in because it would need to come from other services.

"If we increased to last year's level, we would have to find £20,000 somewhere else. We couldn't act alone - we would have to rely on all the other authorities in Yorkshire doing the same."

He said the funding formula was "perverse", and said members of the committee would be lobbying to scrap a system that penalises councils for not putting extra cash in.

Professor Roy Ward, chairman of the flood committee, said money on new defences would be spent in a "strict order of priority" on schemes across the region.

Updated: 08:40 Friday, January 21, 2005