NEIGHBOURS of a leading North Yorkshire flood campaigner claim his home-made defences have put their homes at risk from flooding.

They say they fear that now the multi-million pound Environment Agency scheme to defend Pickering from flooding has been shelved they will be at risk from future floods.

Hotelier Mike Saul, who runs Vivers Mill, Stan Langton, of Vivers Mill Barn, and Stuart Harrison, of Vivers Mill House, all in Mill Lane, claim that nine properties, six of them listed buildings, are at increased risk of flooding because the chairman of Pickering Flood Defence Group, Gordon Clitheroe, and his wife, Lyn, of Mill Stream Cottage, have raised the level of their orchard and built a flood defence wall.

Mr Clitheroe claims the defences have been approved by the Environment Agency, though he accepts he has not submitted a formal planning application to Ryedale District Council. The Environment Agency today declined to comment on whether it had approved the work.

But the neighbours claim that the defences have blocked the flood plain and significantly altered the natural flooding pattern of the area, causing historic Vivers Mill to flood and other homes to be threatened in August, 2002.

"Gordon is still doggedly fighting it out, still refusing to submit a planning application and no doubt hoping that the provision of these Environment Agency flood defences (for Pickering) will see an end to his problems," said Mr Harrison, who is vice-chairman of Pickering Civic Society.

"As vice-chairman of the civic society I did a considerable amount of work trying to ensure that Pickering got a flood defence scheme that was best for the town.

"I live in a listed building sited in a flood plain, and I don't see why I should be expected to sit by and do nothing when I perceive a threat that seems likely to increase the chances of that building being flooded."

The neighbours want the district council and the Environment Agency to end the long-running dispute and to carry out enforcement action.

Mr Clitheroe, who is curator of Pickering's Beck Isle Museum, will tomorrow attend a meeting of the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee in Leeds to lobby for the shelved scheme for the town.

He said his neighbours should join in the struggle to get defences for the town. "They want to direct their energy into something positive," said Mr Clitheroe.

Updated: 11:39 Wednesday, April 14, 2004