Hertford and Cayton county councillor John Blackburn said the council would have to save its cash for repairs and maintenance – although the long-awaited local service centre strategy would still be going ahead in some form.

He said: "That funding won't come in until 2011, but there's no doubt it, we won't get everything we want." Originally, it was agreed to allocate £100,000 to each county division to provide improvements put forward by local councillors and members of the public, although it is not yet clear how budget cuts will affect the programme.

In Hunmanby, parish councillors had hoped to get a 20mph speed limit for a loop around the centre of the village including Bridlington Street, Hungate Lane and Stonegate.

Cllr Blackburn said: "We had talked about getting a flashing speed limit sign for the end of Bridlington Street, but I don't think they'll get that now. The parish council may have to raise their own money."

At the same time, all projects in North Yorkshire's integrated transport capital scheme have been put "on hold".

Executive members of the county council are due to meet before the end of this month to decide which projects can go ahead and which will have to be postponed or cancelled.

One of the projects under threat is Whitby's proposed park and ride scheme.

"North Yorkshire has taken a big hit in the area of transport," said County Cllr John Fort, executive member for business and environmental services."

"We have had something in the region of a £7 million cut in terms of our improvement schemes. This clearly means that we have to look very carefully at the entire programme and make hard choices about what remains and what has to go."