Wainfleet flooding: Residents 'living in fear'

The town of Wainfleet in Lincolnshire was flooded in June last year

People living in a town devastated by floods one year ago say not enough is being done to prevent it happening again.

Almost 600 homes were evacuated when the River Steeping burst its banks in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, last June.

Jean Hart, whose home was badly flooded, said she is worried every time it rains.

The Environment Agency said work was due to start later this year on £4m flood prevention measures.

The town, close to Skegness, saw two months' worth of rain fall in two days in June 2019, which led to a breach in the river bank.

Hundreds of homes were evacuated after the equivalent of two months' rain fell in just two days

An independent inquiry into the flooding found flood defences were not up to modern standards.

The report also recommended monitoring silt levels and vegetation growth to establish the benefits dredging could provide.

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Mrs Hart, who spent months living in a caravan, said: "If this was in London they would be throwing money at it, but because we are small community nobody seems to care.

"[The floods are] imprinted in my brain like it was yesterday.

"It makes you feel physically sick actually - it's so scary that this could happen again."

Fellow resident Steve Hardy said he was also disappointed by the lack of progress.

"It's very slow," he said.

"We still live in fear when it rains - is it coming again?"

The RAF dropped hundreds of tonnes of ballast to plug a breach in the river bank, but little has happened to improve defences since then, residents say

Morgan Wray, Environment Agency flood risk manager for the county, said it had carried out routine maintenance and was looking to strengthen the defences and carry out targeted dredging later in the year.

An action plan was drawn up by the agency and partners in response to the independent inquiry.