BUSINESS leaders in Stamford Bridge have spelt out the devastating impact on their premises when the River Derwent bursts it banks.

They spoke out as the Environment Agency revealed that a feasibility study into the provision of a village flood prevention scheme should result in a recommendation to a meeting next July of the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee.

The businesses were supporting an Evening Press campaign calling for urgent action to protect Stamford Bridge, as well as towns and villages upstream in Ryedale,from further flooding.

A caravan site owner revealed that 50 caravans were written off during the floods in March last year, and that she has still not finished repairing her own adjacent home.

Christine Hind, owner of the Weir Caravan Park, said the vans - more than half the total number on her riverside site -were totally ruined after lying under water for several days.

She contacted the paper to request petition forms which van owners could sign.

A shop-keeper said she lost stock worth £17,500 and could not re-open for eight weeks afterwards while the premises were repaired and refurbished.

Rachel Wright, owner of Ladyfayre women's clothing shop, said she was convinced that the agency simply needed to clear back overgrown bankside vegetation and other obstructions along the river, which she believed were causing the flood by slowing down the flow.

Publicans Neil and Karen Townsend, who took over the Swordsman pub just after the disaster struck, told how they had had to take up carpets twice more since the big flood when the river started rising.