Rawcliffe residents have been praised for expressing their anger over the flooding crisis.

Liberal Democrat councillor Irene Waudby welcomed the outpouring of anger which she observed at Thursday's public meeting at Canon Lee School.

Coun Waudby expressed thanks to the council, police and water authority for being present to take on board the public anger at the flooding in Rawcliffe, and expressed concern at the actions of the Environment Agency who decided at short notice to cancel their earlier decision to attend.

She has also called for a full open public investigation to be held to ensure Rawcliffe must never again be left out in the cold.

Coun Waudby said: "There was a lot of justifiable anger at the meeting, which offered many questions and very few answers.

"It is clear that despite the best efforts of the council, police, army and various agencies, there has been a clear failure of emergency planning. This must never be allowed to happen again.

"A full public investigation into the failures in process, involving all of

the affected residents will now be necessary.

"I was particularly disappointed that the Environment Agency chose at short notice to reverse their original decision to attend. I do not think that they won many friends as a result."

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "While we understand the concerns of local residents and we do want to speak to them in due course, at this time the agency's priority is to inspect around 2,000 kilometres of flood defences across the region, which have been tested as never before by the high levels of water."