HAMBLETON District Council has assured its residents that they will benefit from grant aid to help to tackle the problem of flooding.

The news comes at the same time that the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee announcedamulti-million pound investment programme, none of which will be spent in hard-hit areas such as Northallerton and Thirsk.

The committee has agreed to spend £36 million on capital projects and flood defence maintenance across the region, funded heavily by grants from the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The areas in North Yorkshire that will benefit from the money are Pickering, Tadcaster, Selby, York, Malton and Norton.

However, flood protection for homes and businesses elsewhere in the county is still the priority for members of the Hambleton Flood Forum and they have pledged to seek grant aid from Defra themselves.

The council's head of technical services and member of the forum, David McGloin, did not expect any of the £36 million to be spent in the local area. He said: "The money that Defra has granted to the flood committee will be mainly spent on towns and cities that lie close to a river and are in danger of flooding, such as York.

"The flooding in Northallerton in 2000, for example, was as an effect of adverse weather conditions and therefore we wouldn't expect the committee to spend thousands on capital projects in our area."

The forum, which links Hambleton Council, North Yorkshire County Council, Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency, has also applied for grant aid from Defra for feasibility work that is being carried out at the moment.

Mr McGloin added: "The county council has submitted an application for around £200,000 of grant aid from Defra to fund studies that the forum needs to undertake.

"These will help us to look at the picture as a whole and examine any knock-on effects that flood defence work may case.

"The work doesn't come cheap, but it is essential and we hope that a grant will cover up to 50 per cent of the costs."