"This should never have been allowed to happen - it was predictable and entirely preventable."

That was the message from a leading councillor as Pickering was left drowning in flood water.

Flood campaigner and leader of the Liberal Democrat Party at Ryedale District Council, Howard Keal, said he was "angry and bitter" that Pickering was once again suffering while plans for flood defences in the town were "left to gather dust".

Ryedale's MP, John Greenway, agreed that the flood defences for the town should be a top priority, and pledged to take the issue up immediately with Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, David Milliband and top officials from the Environment Agency.

Coun Keal added: "Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage and appalling distress have been caused by short-sightedness and utter neglect."

After severe flooding in October 2000, a strategy was drawn up for flood defences for Pickering, but in 2004 the Environment Agency shelved the project, citing a lack of funds.

"This is a clarion call for the defences to go ahead without delay, there can be no more excuses," said Coun Keal.

"This Government should hang its head in shame for starving the agency of the funds needed to do the work on building the defences so vitally needed.

"Now the bill is being picked up by the people of Pickering and it is outrageous, we all knew it was only a matter of time before this misery would be inflicted again."

Mr Greenway, speaking to the Gazette & Herald from Strasbourg where he was on Parliamentary business, said he had been devastated by the extent of the floods.

"The message to the Environment Agency and the Government is quite clear - enough is enough. We must have the defences built now.

These floods have proved that the Agency's assertion that freak floods will probably only happen once in 100 years is nonsense.

People's lives have once again been made a misery, businesses have lost thousands of pounds and the whole economy of Pickering will suffer, especially as these floods have happened in the peak holiday months.

"The scheme has been drawn up for Pickering.

What we now need is the funding to be allocated to enable the work to go ahead," he added.

His words were echoed by Lindsay Burr, district councillor and owner of Goodys hair and beauty salon in Bridge Street, which was under three feet of water. As a result she was unable to get into the premises.

"The floods have proved again how much the defence work is needed," she said. "Many people have had to be evacuated and dozens of businesses have been flooded.

Amazingly people have kept their spirits up but there will be a great deal of hard work to be done when the water subsides. It is going to hit many businesses very hard."

At the Beck Isle Museum, chairman Roger Dowson said: "We have had teams of volunteers helping us for hours moving everything upstairs. It's just the big items we can't move."

And he asked: "How many more times does this have to happen before Pickering gets a flood defence system?"

An Environment spokesperson said: "There is a huge demand to build flood defences across the country. In Yorkshire and Humber there are almost 550,000 people living in areas at risk of flooding. Although our funding has increased in recent years the demand is still greater than the money available to build defences.

This means we have to prioritise which defences get built first and unfortunately there are still other places with a higher priority score than Pickering."

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