HOUSEHOLDERS who were flooded out of their York homes last Boxing Day are planning to mark the first anniversary of the disaster by toasting the community spirit that got them through.

Julie Butters, whose home in Huntington Road was inundated, said she and a group of other residents were planning to come out of their homes at about 6pm on December 26 and mark the moment when they first realised there could be a flooding problem.

“We will gather in the street - where we were as the floodwaters began to rise - and raise a glass to the community spirit and solidarity that has got us to where we are today,” she said.

“It will be a very public thing but also very private.”

She said that since she had raised the idea on social media, she had received many messages of support, but she understood there would be some who would prefer not to get involved.

Scores of homes in the Huntington Road area were flooded after the Foss Barrier and Pumping Station was overwhelmed by the sheer flow of water down the Foss. The barrier, intended to prevent floodwater from the Ouse backing up the Foss, was opened by the Environment Agency and a severe flood warning issued.

Julie said she was unaware that evening about the warning and said that as the nearby River Foss had been rising during the afternoon, she had been complacent. “We had been there many times before, and we had the barrier to protect us, and the flooding on the Ouse was much worse in 2000,” she said.

“But we saw activity in the street and my partner Martin went out and came back saying: “We have an issue here.”

She said neighbours had rallied around superbly to help each other on the night the flooding started and on subsequent days as the floodwaters gradually subsided, and then as the long clear-up operation started.

She said questions still remained about the way the authorities handled matters before, during and after the floods, which she hoped would be answered by the city’s independent inquiry, but she wanted to put such matters aside on the coming Boxing Day and concentrate on the positives.