A FRACTIOUS public meeting on Friday night saw residents in York try to question public officials over the causes and responses to the Boxing Day floods.

The meeting - which wound up just after 8pm - was organised by the City of York Council to give people chance to speak to their staff, the Environment Agency (EA), BT and others, but it was at times bad tempered and chaotic with people angry they weren’t warned sooner, or were left without any help from the council or emergency services.

The EA’s Mark Scott started his presentation by apologising to people who had had their homes filled with cold and dirty flood water over the Christmas period.

But several people asked why they were not warned sooner, with one woman saying the seven hour gap between the alarm being raised, and her hearing of the risk could have meant she had “more than six cardboard boxes of belongings” left.

Jim Breen, the council’s emergency planning boss, said: “It is true to say there is no specific plan in place for flooding on the Foss. For 30 years we have relied on the Foss Barrier and for 30 years it has worked.”

He went on to say that when the Foss barrier did fail the inundation was so fast that the council did not have time to put any other emergency flood defences in place.

Meanwhile, city police superintendent Phil Cain outlined problems – in York and in West Yorkshire – which at times left the force without the non emergency 101 number, without radio communications, and relying on a back-up system to take 999 calls. The ambulance service also lost radio systems, he added.

Later in the meeting, Mr Scott said with the £10 million pledged by the Government for improvements, and with technological improvements since the pumps were put in 30 years ago, they hoped to up the capacity of the barrier pumping station.

He went on to say they needed to start looking at managing water in the whole catchment area, rather than relying entirely on the Foss barrier. A plan should be ready and published within two months, he added.

At the end of the meeting both York MPs Rachael Maskell and Julian Sturdy pledged to help anyone who was having trouble with insurance companies, or the clean-up.

It closed with council leader Chris Steward saying the situation was undoubtedly “hellish” for people who had lost their homes to flood waters; and setting out plans for a full public inquiry that will take “months not days”.