A top council chief has cast doubt on the proposed national timetable for tackling railway bridge safety.

Chris Tunstall, Durham County Council's senior engineer, said action on dangerous bridge approaches was needed immediately.

Reports by the Health and Safety Commission and the Highways Agency ordered by the Government in the wake of the Selby rail crash a year ago today have detailed measures to tackle the problem.

A risk assessment programme is due to begin at thousands of sites where roads meet railway lines.

But even at sites deemed to be high risk the recommendation is that action should only be completed "within two years at the latest".

Work on a protocol aimed at clearing up the confusion over who is responsible and pays for what is underway, but it will not be ready until June.

Mr Tunstall, the head of environment and technical services at the county council, said: "The worry is that no-one is still getting round to doing anything.

"We should be saying lets get on with the repairs and accept who pays for them as another issue to be dealt with later.

"The way things stand June is a deadline for sorting out the protocol and it could be two years for the action on the bridges."

The county council has already completed work at four bridges to install new steel crash barriers, two of which it says are Railtrack's responsibility.

Privately officials are thought to have conceded that they may not recover the cost, running into tens of thousands of pounds, from Railtrack which is now in administration.

Mr Tunstall said the issue of responsibility had in some instances been "fudged". He added: "We have not sat on our hands and decided a number of months ago to take a pragmatic approach as public safety is paramount."

The Northern Echo last year identified the scandalous state of barriers at dozens of bridges crossing the East Coast Mainline.

Both Durham and North Yorkshire County Councils also carried out their own safety surveys of bridges in their area following the disaster at Selby.

The crash, which killed ten people, was caused when a car slipped past safety barriers on the M62 into the path of a high speed train.

Since the crash 42 vehicles have ploughed through fencing guarding railway lines across the country.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) accepted that the framework for action would take time.

But she added: "We want to do this properly so to minimise risk and ensure that adequate safety measures are in place."