YORK's flooding inquiry is about to start, and its bosses want to hear from people directly hit by the Boxing Day floods.

An independent panel has been set up to look into what caused the floods, how the city coped, and what should be done differently in the future.

Now its members want to hear from flood victims about whether they got enough warning, what the emergency response was like, and whether communications were good enough.

A series of informal public meetings have been announced, to give people chance to talk about what lessons need to be learnt, how York can get back to normal, how effective the recovery has been, and how the city can be more resilient in the future.

Council leader David Carr and deputy leader Keith Aspden said: "We set-up this inquiry as we think it’s important that we do everything we can to answer residents’ questions and ensure that we all, as a city, can learn from this experience.

"This review will help us to get a much clearer picture of what happened and what steps need to be taken to try to prevent flooding like this in the future. We encourage all those directly affected by the flooding to attend and have their say."

The first meeting is on Monday, June 27 from 5pm to 8pm. More will then take place on Tuesday, June 28 from 12.30pm to 3.30pm; Thursday, June 30 from 5pm to 8pm; Monday, September 5 from 5pm to 8pm; and Wednesday, September 7 from 5pm to 8pm. All will be at City of York Council's West Offices.

The independent panel is being chaired by barrister Angharad Davies, who will work with two panel members Laurence Waterhouse and Tom Toole.

The inquiry was called by council bosses in January to look at how the city coped with the floods. A council budget of £50,000 has been set aside to cover the costs. A report will be produced before Christmas 2016, and the panel chairman will report to a meeting of the Full Council before an action plan can be drawn up.