ENVIRONMENT chiefs told of their delight after securing a £21m Government grant to protect the region's crumbling coastline.

The huge injection of cash will fund the majority of structural improvement work in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

Three areas of the coast, the East Pier, the Castle Headland and the Holms, are to be targeted by the £28m project, which is designed to protect the town for at least the next 50 years from the battering it takes from the North Sea.

Announcing the windfall, Floods Minister Elliot Morley said nearly 100 businesses and homes would directly benefit from the measures to counter coastal erosion.

New armouring to the sea wall and a wave wall will be built, while other refurbishment work is to be carried out along a frontage of nearly one-and-a-half miles.

Winter storms, coastal land-sliding and instability have damaged the sea defences over the years, most recently during the floods of late 2000.

Scarborough Borough Council is to fund the balance of the scheme, using special borrowing powers.

Environment spokesman, Councillor Godfrey Allanson, said: "This is excellent news. It means we can go ahead and preserve the Marine Drive and East Pier as they are today for generations to come."

Work on the scheme is expected to take two years to complete and an announcement will be made shortly on who the contractor will be.

The 18th-Century East Pier provides the town's first line of coastal defence.