A rallying call has been issued to residents of a flood-hit village to join the fight to protect their homes from future deluges.

A year after properties in Flimby were gutted by Storm Desmond and the heavy rain that preceded it, a flood action group is being set up to drive forward efforts to protect the village from future flooding.

A public meeting will be held at the Methodist chapel at 7pm on Wednesday and anyone interested is encouraged to attend.

Carol Tindall, a Maryport town councillor for Flimby, whose own home was hit by the storms, said it was important that villagers took the lead in protecting their properties from flooding rather than leaving it to authorities without local knowledge.

She said: “This can’t keep happening to people. It’s devastating when your home is ruined.

“We want to have a thriving, safe village but you can’t have that if you’re wondering every time it rains if you’re going to flood and that panic is there. It’s important we start to be heard.

“At the end of the day it isn’t the county council’s village or Allerdale’s village – it’s our village and their ideas for the village should be secondary to what we want. We live here – they don’t.”

The flood action group would also be able to apply for grants to fund or part fund work, such as improvements to Flimby’s drainage system, she added.

Councillor Tindall, her fellow town councillors for Flimby Steve Ashworth and Peter Kendall, Allerdale council officers and Action with Communities in Cumbria are already working on the project.

Allerdale council officers are looking at initial proposals to help make the village more flood resistant and resilient.

Coun Tindall added that it was important that villagers’ local knowledge and concerns about increased flood risk were heard and acted on when building work was planned in Flimby.

She said: “I have lived here all my life and my family goes back 500 years here. There are others in the village, too, with the local knowledge that cannot be ignored when planners are making decisions about developments that will affect us all.”

Flimby and parts of Maryport were among the first parts of the area to experience flooding last winter when heavy rain arrived on Thursday, December 3.

More than 100 homes and businesses were hit by flooding as rain overwhelmed Barrel Arch, Penny Gill, Furnace Gill and Risehow Beck.

Earlier this year 50 people turned up to a consultation meeting with the Environment Agency and blamed the lack of maintenance of drains for the bulk of the problems in the area.

Miss Tindall received prolonged applause when she said flooding would continue unless the drains were cleaned regularly – at least every six months.