YORK may be an ancient city, but that doesn't mean it should have prehistoric drains. After last weekend's torrential rain, residents in Sawyer Crescent, Copmanthorpe, were horrified to discover manholes lifted by flood water and sewage oozing into the street. If that's not bad enough, one mum watched suspiciously brown water coming up the plug hole, just moments after bathing her youngest.

It's shocking to think that in this day and age things like this still happen. We have mobiles with more computing power than Apollo 11, yet a seemingly simple thing like coping with a heavy downpour consistently defeats us.

Yes, the weekend weather was exceptional, but streets being flooded with sewage in 2015 is simply not good enough. Steps must be made to ensure it does not happen again.