CRUCIAL repairs to one of the most dangerous railway bridges in the region could suffer a three-month delay, it was revealed tonight.

The crumbling bridge over the East Coast main line at Dalton-on-Tees, near Darlington, has been the scene of at least two serious accidents in recent years and was earmarked for urgent improvements by council chiefs in January.

However, repairs to the bridge - which is protected only by flimsy wooden barriers - could be set back even further because of work being carried out at the site by Northern Electric.

North Yorkshire County Council is holding talks with the company to try and speed up the moving of two electricity poles.

But officers say the project could take three months - meaning the decaying structure would deteriorate further.

Brian Jones, of the council's environment department, said: "It could be up to three months - we are trying to see if we can get some special arrangement to bring that forward, but I don't think that request has moved forward very far."

Last May, a pick-up truck crashed into the frail fencing only yards from the railway line in an incident which could have led to a Selby-type disaster.

And in February, angry villagers told how they had brought the state of the bridge to the attention of the authorities seven years ago - only to be told it would be too costly to make repairs.

The county council committed £100,000 to improving the Dalton bridge and three others in January, but the Northern Echo reported yesterday that work had still not begun.

Mr Jones said the authority was putting the work out to tender this week and was hoping to make swift progress on the other sites at Danby Wiske, Thirsk Station and Thorpefield.

But officials say that until clear guidance on responsibility for bridge repairs is issued by the Government, little progress can be made on improving other potentially hazardous sites.