David Cameron heckled by flood victim as he visits York

“No more cuts to public services”, he was shouted at by one woman.

“That’s not true”, he told Sky News as he visited volunteers at an emergency sandbagging centre in York.

But a decision by the Environment Agency (EA) to open the defence scheme sent flood water coursing through the city streets and left many property owners wondering whether their buildings were put at risk to save others.

Explaining the situation in York in detail, Cameron said, “There are two sets of flood defences: the flood defences on the (River) Ouse which have worked and then the flood defences on the River Foss which weren’t able to work and that’s why there has been the flooding that there has been”.

However, Mr Cameron – speaking as he visited flood-hit areas – said the United Kingdom had spent “more per head of the population on flood defences in the north than we do in the south”.

When such events take place, Cameron argued, “you should look at what you’ve spent, look at what you’ve built, look at what you’re planning to spend, look at what you’re planning to build, and ask whether it’s in the right places, whether it’s enough, whether we’re doing everything we can to try and help”.

“And we urgently need the government to adopt the policies that will ensure we play our part in restricting climate change to a total of 1.5 degrees warming”.

Bakery-owner Jayne Chew-Tetlaw said: “If Mytholmroyd was in Syria or down south we would see the Government handing out £50 million just like that, but because we are up north it’s like we don’t exist”.

She also promised to review flood defences, which have once again been pushed to their limit.

“The level of the rivers plus the level of rainfall has created an unprecedented effect and so some very serious flooding”.

“In order to restore confidence in government action, I propose that a prompt independent assessment is made of the future flood defence investment programme, led by independent experts, including local council leaders drawn from the affected areas”.

The UK Met Office weather forecasting service has issued warnings of rain on Wednesday in northwest and northeast England, as well as Wales, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland.

Accountancy firm PwC said it was too early to estimate losses arising from this month’s floods, but initial analysis showed that they could run as high as £1.3 billion. Environment Secretary Liz Truss told the BBC that the amount of rain had been “unprecedented”.

“People in these communities should continue to check their flood risk, prepare for flooding, follow the advice from emergency services and never risk driving through flood water”.

OVER almost three decades, the Foss barrier has protected homes and businesses in York from being flooded.

The Archbishop of York John Sentamu said flood waters were coming into his Bishopthorpe Palace residence.

Meanwhile, Labour politicians are criticising the Environment Agency for “ignoring warnings” that flooding on this scale was likely to happen.

Downing Street said emergency financial assistance would be available to homes and businesses in Yorkshire and Lancashire.