ANGRY residents have hit out following months of living in "disrepair" after severe flooding.

At a meeting to discuss Cumbria County Council's draft Flood Investigation Report last night (18), Millom home and business owners slammed the response to September's flash flooding.

Many residents said they had "lost everything" after the heavy rain.

One member of the Millom and Haverigg Flood Support Group said: "I am now living in a house that is in disrepair. It is not my beautiful home.

"I feel trapped. I can't afford to move and I'm reluctant to renovate because there is no guarante this won't happen again.

"We don't want Millom to be classed as a high-risk area."

Many residents argued blocked gullies worsened the problem around the town.

Shelagh Cloudsale said: "This report is a lie. There has been no gully cleaning going on for years.

"On the day of the flood we were terrified. I was out cleaning my own gutters. It is just not good enough.

"How are the council going to communicate with residents and tell them when they're doing it so they don't park their cars there?"

Doug Coyle, of Cumbria County Council, said: "We know that gully cleaning may not have been done in the past as it should have been.

"We know when we went out to clean them a few months before these floods that some of them hadn't been cleaned for a while.

"There was a considerable amount of silt there and that has caused some of the damage."

Mr Coyle confirmed the council were hoping to work with Copeland Borough Council and United Utilities to make sure the process is carried out more regularly.

He said: "We have to work in tandem with our parners and that is something that hasn't really been done in the past.

"We are going to make it more of a seamless task and carry it out on a more regular basis.

"That is something we want to do across Cumbria."

The report claimed 261 homes and businesses in Millom were affected, with a further 10 in Haverigg.

Residents, however, fear the figure is much higher than reported, with over 1,000 people suffering damage.

One resident said: "I have lost everything. I have no insurance because they wouldn't pay out.

"I am left with a bungalow that is uninsurable and unsellable."

Many of those affected crowded in the Beggar's Theatre to hear the presentation of the report, with representatives from Cumbria County Council and United Utilities.