The money's there - but three months later, work still to begin

And despite the desperate pleas of local authorities, the Government has yet to sort out the funding mess, which means improvements to dozens of other hazardous bridges cannot go ahead.

As the squabbling over who should foot the bill continued, survivors of the Selby rail disaster - which killed ten people - said action needed to be taken before more lives were lost.

North Yorkshire County Council confirmed yesterday that it had not begun urgently-needed repairs to four of the area's deteriorating bridges over the East Coast main line.

The authority committed funding to the project in January, but contractors have yet to be hired to carry out the work at Dalton-on-Tees, Danby Wiske, Thirsk Station and Thorpefield.

Electricity work taking place at Dalton has set that project back and problems with a footpath diversion are thought to be holding up another scheme.

Brian Jones, of the county council's environment department, said tenders for the contract would not be advertised until the work had been completed.

"We are talking about weeks rather than months and this has not changed our commitment. We are trying to get all the jobs done under one contract - we don't really want to take on a separate contractor for each one," he said.

But Selby survivor Mark Russell insisted: "There has been long enough time to deal with these bridges, yet still nothing has been done. This must be done before more lives are destroyed."

Another survivor, Janine Edwards, of York, said: "I would urge those in authority to get started. It seems silly to have the money and not start the work."

However, council bosses say they cannot guarantee when work on a further 29 bridges in North Yorkshire will be carried out, as the Government has yet to issue clear guidance on who is responsible for the work.

Durham County Council is among many authorities to have made improvements to bridges, despite insisting they were owned by Railtrack.