SEVENTEEN options to prevent 'catastrophic' flooding in the Lake District have been whittled down to two at a public meeting.

Representatives from the Environment Agency, frustrated hoteliers and property owners met to discuss the next step towards taking preventative flooding measures around Windermere, Backbarrow and Bowness.

One of the preferred options, from the flood appraisal report, presented by the Environment Agency at the meeting, was to install a new underground pipe along Windermere that would help drain excess water.

The culvert would connect from Windermere to the area downstream of Backbarrow Bridge and would provide a permanent bypass facility to take excess lake water as a way to reduce flood risk.

However, this proposition was severely opposed by several people present at the meeting. Professor Paul Wrobel said that the culvert, which would be approximately five kilometres in length, following the Haverthwaite railway, would be too unnecessarily long and would create great disruption environmentally at a much greater cost than was initially stated.

He presented 'the pipeline solution' which is similar to the culvert idea. But the pipes would not be underground and would run alongside the Lakeside and Haverthwaite railway but not as far as Haverthwaite Bridge.

Professor Wrobel said it was a system that can be turned off as well as on and is capable of coping with the consequences of climate change.

Chris Evans, a representative from the Environment Agency, explained that the agency could not do any more work on either of the final two options due to financial constraints by the Government.

"We have reached as far as we can go," he said. "We can only offer so much and at this moment in time there is no option that is economical viable. Additional funding is needed in order to take this further."

Carole Shaw, representing the Windermere Motor Boat Racing Club, did not want to dismiss any proposition simply because of financial constraint.

"We need to have an open mind," she said. "We shouldn't drop any option because of money. We need to find the perfect solution otherwise for the next ten years we could be going in the wrong direction."

However, despite the three hour long discussion, the meeting failed to reach a consensus on what should be done to prevent a repeat of Storm Desmond's devastation in 2015.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron, who was also in attendance, said he needed to have an option that was substantial enough so that he could help fight the Government for more funding. "At the moment it's like nailing jelly to a wall," he said.

Wally Francis, chairman of the Whitewater Hotel and Lakeland Village at Backbarrow, believed the agency was taking a narrow view on the whole matter.

"This has now become a matter of urgency," he said. "We all have the same interests and we want the problem to go away. At the moment it's like playing football without a ball."

So far £200,000 has gone into analysing the 17 options but according to Professor Wobel the options presented were flawed from the start.

"So much money has gone into these reports to produce nothing," he said, "But £10,000 is all that is needed to anaylse the pipeline solution properly and that could provide us with an answer to the solution."

Brian Glover-Smith, a property owner in Windermere, said if £10,000 could be the missing link to finding the solution it would seem trivial not to finish the job.

The next meeting is expected to be held this month between the agency and members of the local community and businesses where a final decision will have to be made.

"The next time there's a catastrophic flood, it's terminal for us." said Mr Francis, "It's going to be another horrible dose of reality, and it's just horrible to think about actually."