APPLEBY residents met last night (July 28) to discuss the impact of the December floods.

At a Flood Forum event, members of the public were presented with a draft flood report and given the opportunity to give feedback on what they heard.

Andrew Connell, a councillor for Appleby, said that there was a 'good turn out', with one of the main talking points being river dredging.

"A number of local people are of the opinion that the river should be dredged," he said. "The Environment Agency was fairly clear that their model on what is an appropriate level of gravel for the river does not indicate that the River Eden at Appleby requires dredging and some people did not want to believe that.

"There was a bit of an impasse, but in my view a compromise can be reached."

Cllr Connell remarked that although it was not a bad tempered meeting, members of the public were 'pretty insistent and their points of view were heard'.

The draft report highlights that the main sources of flooding in Appleby was a combination of the river banks and flood defences overtopping, surface water flooding and manhole/culvert surcharging.

Cllr Connell said that one thing that everyone at the meeting agreed on was the role that the Doomgate culvert had, saying that it was 'simply not big enough' to handle the volume of water during the floods.

"The affects of flooding are still very much felt in Appleby," Cllr Connell said. "Some properties have been refurbished and some remain to be done."

The Environment Agency has been keen to make clear that the flood reports that have been produced are draft documents and that it will continue to develop the reports as feedback is received from the public.

Some 30 Flood Forum meetings have been held across affected parts of Cumbria so far, with Ambleside, Kirkby Stephen and Shap remaining.