MANY residents were left “stressed and anxious” by a lack of information from the council about flood protection measures at the weekend - according to York Central’s MP.

Rachael Maskell MP said people with homes at risk of flooding spent hundreds of pounds on extra equipment - such as sandbags - because they did not know what City of York Council’s flood teams had planned for their streets.

Ms Maskell visited residents and businesses across the city at the weekend as Storm Dennis hit and said one issue people raised repeatedly was a “delay in formal communications from the council”.

She said: “While the council knew what their plans were, residents didn’t know their plans.

“As a result, many spent hundreds of pounds over the weekend on additional resilience measures, to only find that by Sunday they had a barrier erected at the bottom of their street.

“The communications from the council were lagging and they were reluctant to hand out information about the levels of flooding, confirm whether or not people would get sandbags, etc.

“This meant that residents were very stressed and anxious.

“As the weekend progressed sandbags and resilience barriers and some information arrived, which helped to reassure people, but this was late.”

She added that many businesses told her they are still unable to get insurance because of very high premiums due to flooding - and that she raised the issue with the Secretary of State for the Environment George Eustice MP when he visited York on Sunday afternoon.

The council communications team issued press releases to the media throughout the weekend - including on Saturday evening at about 9.30pm and Sunday at about 7pm.

They also regularly updated their social media accounts - including Twitter and Facebook.

At the weekend council teams deployed more than 1,000 sand bags and 200 one-tonne sand bags at Bishopthorpe, worked with residents in Fulford, Clementhorpe, Naburn and Fishergate, raised Clementhorpe flood defences, strengthened Peckitt Street defences, put out extra pump equipment at Tower Gardens and Germany Beck and cleared 300 gullies.