COUNCIL bosses have revealed plans to upgrade another four of the region's potentially dangerous railway bridge barriers.

North Yorkshire County Council has already completed work to strengthen barriers at 11 road-over-rail sites and is seeking Government funding to improve others.

The authority is asking the Department of Transport for the cash needed to finish its extensive programme of work to prevent drivers from plunging on to railway lines.

The work began in earnest after the Selby rail disaster, in February 2001, when ten people were killed after a Land Rover veered off a motorway and into the path of an oncoming express train.

Officials have identified three bridges over the East Coast Main Line as priorities for the coming finanical year.

They are at Shires and Sykes Lane, both near Easingwold, and at South Otterington, near Northallerton. There are also plans for temporary barriers to be installed at Colton Lane.

The work is expected to cost about £230,000 and would then leave upgrades needed on six other structures. Four would be completed in 2004 to 2005 and the other two the following year.

The county council is seeking more than £1m from the Government as part of its Local Transport Plan bid.

The money would cover the cost of work already carried out and other work still to do.

Immediate action was taken in the wake of the Selby crash because the council felt that several bridges posed too much of a danger to allow squabbling over who should pay for repairs to drag on.

Officials have given up hope of securing part of the repair costs from Network Rail and are demanding the full amount from the government.

Brian Jones, of the environmental services department, said: "We have heard nothing about Network Rail paying its share.

"Our assumptions are that we are just looking to the government for the money and will not get 50 per cent from Network Rail."

Read more about the Railway Bridges scandal here.