Anguish at caravan park 'waist deep in water'

Sarah Jayne Barker, who helps to run Greengrass Park, said she had "cried so much"

The owners of an East Yorkshire caravan park have described how flooding devastated the site on New Year's Eve.

Greengrass Park, near Driffield, had to be evacuated when it was inundated after water overtopped a protective wall .

Emma Jayne Barker, whose family owns the site, said they had lost their pub, clubhouse, offices and home and claimed the Environment Agency should have done more to protect them.

The Environment Agency said it understood the "devastating impact" of flooding and it was working "to find a solution quickly".

The 35-acre holiday park, which hosts both static and touring caravans, is close to the River Hull, a fishing lake and the hamlet of Hempholme, where a flood warning remained in place on Tuesday.

Ms Barker said the water had been building up on a nearby field in recent weeks and finally breached their bund wall – a type of flood defence - on New Year’s Eve.

Ms Barker, whose father owns the park and who lives on-site with her fiancé, said: "We’ve lost our pub, our clubhouse, our offices, our home."

She said the field behind their park typically filled with about an inch of water every year, but it was not "anything that’s drastic".

She claimed this year the Environment Agency had pumped water into the field.

She said: "This year they’ve been pumping water from I-don’t-know-where back into that field until it’s completely breached our bund wall.

Drone footage shows the extent of the flooding at the site

"We sand-bagged the top of it to try and make it higher, we did everything.

"Our park was dry. We were nearly reopening for New Year’s Eve and then, all of a sudden, they decided to pump more water in.

"It breached our bund wall and now we are waist deep in water."

She said they had been preparing to welcome 100 guests to a ticketed event on New Year’s Eve, but the venue had flooded.

Ms Barker said the family did not yet know how much damage had been done.

She said: "I’ve cried so much that I don’t even know what to do any more. I’m just numb."

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: "We understand the devastating impacts flooding can have on homes and businesses and we will always aim to work with those affected to find a solution quickly.

"The Hempholme Pumping Station, near the Greengrass caravan site, is currently in operation to try and reduce water levels and we have been in regular contact with the owners of this site to discuss options for pumping the excess water.

"While we are working to pump as much water as we can, we need to wait for water levels in the River Hull to drop to enable water to clear from the site.

"We will continue to work to maximise pumping at this location."

Fourteen flood warnings remained in place across East Yorkshire on Tuesday afternoon.

The warning for Hempholme said further rain was expected.

It said: "River levels are expected to remain high and flooding of properties will continue."

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