Vulnerable towns and coastland in Sussex will receive extra cash for vital flood defence work.

Members of the Sussex Flood Defence Committee agreed a budget of £20 million to complete coastal defences at Pevensey and get work under way at Buxted, Uckfield and Lewes.

More than £11 million will come from local authorities in Sussex, with the rest coming from Government and other grants.

The committee met at the Environment Agency's headquarters in Worthing.

A spokesman for the agency said the money would be spent paying contractors to continue shoring up the Pevensey Bay coastline as part of a 25-year, £30 million project.

Lewes and Uckfield will have flood defences strengthened as part of the Ouse project, subject to Government approval.

The River Lavant relief scheme at Chichester is expected to be completed and the money will pay for coastal defences at Ferring and Shoreham.

Councillor Peter Jones, leader of East Sussex County Council, said residents living in flood-prone areas deserved better defences.

A deluge of rain since the New Year brought the county to the brink of crisis when water levels rose close to those seen in October two years ago, when much of Sussex flooded.

He said: "We also believe the Government must change the current system for funding sea and river defence schemes and finance these multi-million pound engineering projects at national level.

"Local councils simply do not have the money. In the meantime, the seven per cent increase that we will contribute to river and sea £20m to be spent on flood defence will help protect our towns and villages.

"I am pleased to see that at last the Environment Agency has dipped into its own balances to help but the agency also needs to step up the scrutiny of its own budget to help reduce the impact on council tax payers."

Peter Midgley, the agency's Sussex area manager, said: "The events of the last few days and the continuing threat from flooding shows the importance of this work.

"It also demonstrates the need for continuing future investment in flood defences for our rivers, coastline and in our flood warning service."

East Sussex County Council will contribute £3.45 million, a rise of £226,000 from last year.

In Lewes, raising flood walls and other engineering should begin later this year if the Government approves the project, a decision expected soon.

The new flood defences are expected to takes three years to complete.

Additional work, yet to be finalised, to use the flood plain south of the town to store surplus flood water is expected to take until 2009 to complete.