An environment manager sparked outrage from Derwent flood victims today when he suggested householders should do more to protect themselves against disaster.

Tom Collier, chairman of the Environment Agency's Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee, spoke out after his committee heard a £2.2 million public information survey showed many people still did not know they lived in areas at risk.

Interviews carried out with 1,060 people living in flood-risk areas around the country discovered that 880 of them had taken no precautions to protect themselves.

Mr Collier said: "This shows that there is a need for a continuing education process to be reinforced by the fact that too few people take action to protect themselves and their property in case of flooding.

"It is the responsibility of the public to take positive action to prepare themselves for flooding."

But Howard Keal, who chairs the St Nicholas Street Residents' Association in Norton, responded angrily to Mr Collier's words.

Mr Keal claimed: "It is another example of the Environment Agency being more than a little insensitive. Some of the comments are a little short of outrageous for anyone who has experienced having 3ft of flood water in their living room.

"We are looking to the Environment Agency to face up to its responsibilities and produce a flood defence scheme that will stop floods happening.

"This idea that the residents can actually act to do something about the flooding is again insulting and it's for the Environment Agency to act to prevent the flooding in the first place."

At yesterday's meeting, the flood defence committee voted to increase by 5.6 per cent the levy paid by local authorities towards flood prevention work.

Mr Collier said: "The misery and costs of a major flood are well-known to the people of Malton, Norton and Stamford Bridge following the exceptional rainfall in the Derwent uplands last March.

Some residents are only now moving back to properties affected at the time."

Although the increase in levy is less than the 7.9 per cent proposed by the Environment Agency, Mr Collier said he recognised that local authorities had to balance flood defence with other spending priorities.

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