A PLEDGE to treat flooding in North Tawton as top priority came from the area's MP John Burnett this week.

The politician's promise follows hot on the heels of a meeting of West Devon's partnership committee, which agreed 'urgent' action was required.

Mr Burnett, MP for West Devon and Torridge, spoke at question time in the House of Commons last week. He asked that a review of the formula for working out flood defence spending be carried out, to ensure a fair proportion went to rural towns like North Tawton.

Deputy prime minister John Prescott agreed the system was not fair and has ordered an enquiry and report.

Mr Burnett said: 'I am working with West Devon Borough Council to get the money for the scheme as soon as possible.

'They have submitted a bid for some of this extra £51-million announced recently. I am going to see Elliott Morley at the Ministry of Agriculture to make the case for our borough having a tranche of this money.

'North Tawton not only has many houses and businesses which have suffered flooding but the crucial point I shall be drawing to his attention is the frequency of flooding — people's lives are literally ruined by this.'

Mr Burnett said he will call and chair a meeting of all agencies as soon as the consultant's report commissioned by West Devon is published in January.

David Incoll, borough chief executive, told the partnership committee: 'Clearly, North Tawton is a priority at the moment.

'I think we've got to keep the pressure on in regard to North Tawton — I think we need to look at it urgently, I don't think the town will accept a wait of three to four years.'

Cllr Nick Morgan, who represents North Tawton on the borough council, made a desperate plea on behalf of the town.

He said the consultant's report into the flooding problem was the third one he knew had been completed in the last few years, yet still nothing had been done.

'I see carpets and furniture piled out outside from the last flooding. One resident had been in her house from flooding last Christmas no more than six weeks.

'Is that fair? I don't think so. I ask you to do something today, not tomorrow or the day afterwards. We can't keep sitting round a table, it's not fair to the people of North Tawton,' said Cllr Morgan.

Roger Collins, the borough's head of building services, told the committee that flooding problems in the town were very complicated.

'The computer model developed to assess the flooding just couldn't work properly,' he said.

'We will probably never solve all problems. It's going to be expensive — I think our gut reaction is that we are looking at between half to three-quarters-of-a-million pounds.'

He said it was important to work with the Environment Agency and MAFF and get South West Water 'on board' — the county council highways department were already working to clear drains in the area.

And Nick Payne, borough head of environmental services, said the authority was trying to contact riparian owners to get waterways cleared.