THE National Audit Commission has issued a highly critical report on the state of the nation's flood defences which says that almost half them are "inadequate." This will not come as news to hundreds of North Yorkshire families whose homes were inundated by last autumn's floods, many of them in a long stretch of the Aire Valley from Gargrave via Skipton to south of Keighley.

Hundreds of millions - probably billions - will have to be spent in coming years in improving defences if, as forecast, global warming makes once freak flooding a regular event.

However, this announcement will come as a grave blow for already cash-strapped North Yorkshire County Council. Under present arrangements, such work is recommended by the Environment Agency but the local authority involved must foot most of the bill.

Yet North Yorkshire has some of the country's most venerable flooding spots: York, Malton, Boroughbridge and many more smaller communities are at constant risk. To pay for such vast capital programme would place huge burdens on the county's taxpayers.