Great flood 'could happen again'

Baroness Young, chief executive of the Environment Agency, told a Commons select committee there is currently no flood warning system for the city.

She was grilled by MPs about whether more could have been done to alert people whose homes and businesses were devastated by the summer floods.

Now calls have been made for the Government to pay for a proper flood warning system in Sheffield.

The Environment Agency says its system only monitors potential flooding from rivers and not surface run-off - which caused June's deluge.

Coun Paul Scriven, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Sheffield Council, said: "It appears that the authorities believe it's acceptable that Sheffield doesn't have an effective flood warning system because we are susceptible to the wrong type of flooding.

"But it doesn't matter if the flooding is caused by overflowing rivers or surface water; the people of Sheffield are entitled to an effective flood warning system.

"The relevant authorities should rectify the situation as soon as possible and Gordon Brown should put his money where his mouth is and provide the necessary funding."

Sheffield Council leader Jan Wilson said: "The leaders of the four South Yorkshire local authorities met with the Environment Agency last week to explore ways in which we could all learn from the issues highlighted during this summer's floods and we will aim to work closely in the future to address the various areas of concern."

MPs revealed Sheffield Council had complained to the committee it only received a warning when water reached car windscreen levels.

Baroness Young insisted it had been very difficult to give a warning in Sheffield because the flooding was caused by "surface water" and not overwhelmed rivers.

She said: "Sheffield was one of those areas where there was considerable, very rapid flooding from surface water drainage issues.

"That was the primary cause of most of the flooding in Sheffield and therefore it was very difficult to give the warning at all.

"We currently don't have a warning system there."

EA water management boss Dr David King said the agency's warning system is "exclusively associated with flooding from rivers" - and not the surface water which inundated many urban areas.

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