A £3.4m scheme to defend a town from flooding has been announced - but it will be a scaled-down version due to budget cuts.

National reductions in funding for flood defences means a major part of an Environment Agency scheme for Northallerton has been shelved. The town was hit by severe floods in 2000 and 2002.

The agency has announced it will begin work on protecting 212 Northallerton homes next year, once proposals have planning approval.

It plans to repair culverts, construct storage areas on the Sun and Turker becks, improve the beck’s channels and install hydraulic controls to deal with increased volumes of water.

It will also build a £50,000 flood defence in Romanby.

But a planned storage reservoir in Brompton has been put on hold due to lack of funding.

The agency says the scheme will be revived if £2.1 million can be found from other sources.

Malton and Thirsk MP Anne McIntosh has been pushing for better flood defence legislation for several years.

"I am pressing the Government to come forward with an instruction to look for less engineered, more natural solutions,” she said.

"We have to give reassurance to the local communities that we are going to do the best for them and will bring some relief.

"It is not acceptable for no scheme to go ahead."

Charles Forman, from the Environment Agency, said: “A flood defence scheme was originally progressed by North Yorkshire County Council, which included some work in Brompton, but the main part of the scheme could not be completed because of national funding constraints on flood defence work.

“Since then, the watercourses running through Northallerton have been reclassified as main rivers and the Environment Agency now has the power to implement flood defence work along them.”

In Pickering, proposals for flood defences have also been announced - and they too have had to shelve plans for a large floodwater storage area.

The Slowing the Flow Partnership Project Board is to make £85,000 available to Ryedale District Council to protect properties against flooding.

It was looking at creating a large storage area to hold flood water back from the town. But this has been shelved as it would be classed as a reservoir and have to comply with the Reservoirs Act. This would substantially increase the cost.

Instead it is looking at creating smaller flood storage areas and schemes such as using natural flood plains and blocking moorland drains.

ENDS