Was the north-west of England ready for flooding?

The north-west of England is recovering from major flooding on New Year's Day

As the clean-up continues across the north-west of England after torrential rain led to severe flooding on New Year's Day, local politicians are calling for a probe into what warnings were given and how agencies responded to the region's third "once-in-a-hundred-year weather event" in five years.

Almost 1,000 people across Greater Manchester had to be evacuated from their homes, with flooding also affecting parts of Lancashire and Cheshire.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has assured "every resident who has been affected" that "no questions will be left unanswered".

The Environment Agency (EA) said "a very large number" of warnings were issued before the deluge.

Manchester councillor Richard Kilpatrick said the flooding was the most devastating the area had seen in decades.

He told BBC Radio Manchester: "There needs to be accountability."

The Didsbury West Liberal Democrat councillor added: "There will be a briefing... then we need to ask some really serious questions of all the government agencies [about] whether the response was up to it, whether the warning from the environment agency came early enough."

"This is the third time in five years that we've had a once-in-a-100-year weather event.

Cars had to be abandoned due to rising flood levels

Was there enough warning?

Emergency services declared a major incident in the early hours of New Year's Day.

But Burnham said he felt they were "taken by surprise to some degree".

"If people cast their mind back to what might seem a comparable event, it was the floods on Boxing Day in 2015, and going back then there were more warnings given," he said.

"We will need to look back at this and just ask whether the right warnings were given."

The Met Office issued an amber weather alert for heavy rain and the EA issued a flooding warning on the afternoon of New Year's Eve.

Andy Brown of the EA told BBC North West Tonight it estimated that warnings relating to about 10,000 properties across the southern part of the region were issued via its free flood warning service.

He added: "We issued 70 flood warnings which is a very large number."

Are the flooding defences adequate?

Kilpatrick said there were also questions to be asked about "the reassurance we've had over the last five years that these flood defences and the banks of the river were safe enough".

"That clearly is no longer the case," he said.

But Mr Brown disputed this, saying: "Across the north-west we estimate a minimum of 21,000 properties have been prevented from flooding thanks to flood defences doing their job that everybody needs and expects them to do.

"That is probably no solace to those affected but it is a huge number which I am really proud of."

He said: "We can never entirely eliminate the risk of flooding so we and other organisations will continue to do all we can to build more and better defences to help people... and to try and build in flood resistance to how we deal with the risk of flooding if it does occur."

Bridgewater Canal in Cheshire burst its banks, with drone footage showing stretches of land near the village of Little Bollington left underwater.

The Canal & River Trust charity said the breach illustrated the "vulnerabilities that all canals of this age" faced due to climate change.

The Bridgewater Canal in Cheshire burst its banks

Is flooding becoming more frequent?

Burnham said major weather events had been "coming thick and fast", with a number of named storms battering the UK in recent months.

The rain event on Wednesday was not technically a storm, so was not named as such by the Met Office, but Burnham said that "led to a worse situation than the others that we have been warned about".

He added: "It's not easy for anybody because we are seeing what people call one in one-hundred-year weather events happening every year or so now.

"The weather has changed."

Mr Brown agreed with this, saying: "We are seeing more intense and more frequent rainfall and the flood risk is increasing.

"The latest estimate show that in parts of the North West climate change might result in about approximately 20-30% increase in rainfall so they will be substantial changes in the long-term for us."

The Tyndall Centre in Manchester is one of the country's leading climate change research centres.

Ruth Wood from the centre said the flooding on Wednesday was "consistent with what we'd expect from climate change".

"The intensification of rainfall events we've seen across Europe over the last decades has been attributed - and shown - that humans are having an influence on that intensification of rainfall so more frequent intense heavy rainfall," she said.

As the region's clean up from floods continues Met Office yellow warnings for snow and ice have been issued for much of England and Wales and parts of Scotland over the weekend.