A MULTI-MILLION pound investment in flood defences has been announced in a bid to prevent a repeat of last year's crisis.

The Environment Agency confirmed that £4.1m would be ploughed into major schemes to protect two towns which have suffered severe flooding twice in the space of two years.

Work is expected to start in the autumn on defences in the twin towns of Malton and Norton, in North Yorkshire, where many residents are still waiting to return to their homes following the floods of last November.

The long-awaited cash package will provide earth banks, walls and floodgates along the banks of the River Derwent, from Old Malton, through Malton and Norton, and running into higher ground downstream of the towns.

Although the scheme still needs planning permission, as well as approval from English Nature and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, agency bosses believe there are no obstacles to the work being completed by autumn next year.

Project manager Peter Holmes said: "The indications are that there are no problems at all. It has taken a long time to get to this stage but we had to look at all the options."

However, he also sounded a note of caution, saying: "If we get a bigger flood than we have had in the past two years there is a chance of the defences overtopping."

It is also feared that if the scheme was delayed, defences would not be in place until the flooding season of 2003/2004.

More than 100 homes were flooded in the Malton area last year - when water levels exceeded those seen in 1999 - and residents' misery was compounded by a damning report from a Government watchdog, saying flood defences in the North were the worst in the country.

Yesterday's boost was announced by the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee, which allocated £1m to provide barrier defences and raise the A166 at Stamford Bridge.

Committee chairman, Professor Roy Ward, said: "This marks a major step forward in providing protection for some communities which were badly affected last autumn."