Anger over response to Storm Babet in Retford, Chesterfield and Catcliffe

Residents forced to flee their homes because of flooding caused by Storm Babet have spoken of their anger as the scale of the damage became apparent.

People living in areas including Catcliffe in South Yorkshire, Retford and Newark in North Nottinghamshire and Chesterfield in North Derbyshire have been left counting the cost after a weekend of heavy rain, which left one elderly woman dead and hundreds of properties uninhabitable.

In Chesterfield, where 83-year-old Maureen Gilbert died, local MP Toby Perkins called for an inquiry into the response.

Mrs Gilbert's son, Paul, found her body floating in flood water.

He said sandbags were only dropped off as the area flooded, even though the warnings had been in place for hours. "It does seem like this area gets forgotten," he said. "A lot of people don't even know it's here."

Mr Perkins said: "The Gilbert family need to know everything in terms of the emergency response, in terms of why the flood remediation package that had been put in place was inadequate. I think people here now are questioning is it safe to live here?"

Stephanie Winnard's home in Chesterfield was flooded for the second time in 16 years.

She and her husband stayed on the first floor of their home as the waters rose.

"I'm devastated but I was glad I stayed in this time because last time when I came back it was soul destroying and this time I was more prepared for it," she said.

"It just breaks you. Dirty, filthy water in your house is horrible. The river and the gardens were just one and it was flowing really fast so it wasn't safe to be out there. We had to wade through waist deep water Saturday morning."

Adam Duffy's home was flooded when the River Rother burst its banks.

He said: "Coming back every day and seeing it I think, where do you start? My fiancee worked so hard to get it to pristine condition."

In Retford, Craig Lee and his family were forced to move out of their home and have since been divided between various other properties.

He described the situation as "heartbreaking".

"We're going to be out of this house for months. Just drying this place out is going to take two, three months at least," he said.

"We've got Christmas coming up - we've got a baby, got a dog, a cat, they're all in different locations. We'll all have to stay in different houses, I've had to move back to my mum's, it's just going to be like this for a long time and its heartbreaking really."

Mr Lee was critical of the help the family has been offered.

"We've not had any sandbags, we've been offered a one-off £120 payment that's not going to cover anything. We can't even get a skip for £120, it's just ridiculous."

In Catcliffe, near Rotherham, cars were left underwater and homes were ruined.

Chris Lloyd said his home had been inundated with 6ft of water.

He said: "The damage is incredible. It's absolutely horrendous."

Mr Lloyd said the response from local authorities had been inadequate.

"I've still not seen anybody, nothing. Nobody has told us what the future is going to be. We don't want a future in Catcliffe."

Cllr Chris Read, leader of Rotherham Council, said the authority was doing all it could to support those affected by the floods.

"It's heartbreaking," he said. "The council has had staff on site since Friday night and will be here for the rest of the week . The river was at record levels, we haven't seen it that high before and if it continues to get worse that's a real challenge, even for the best made plans."

Frank De Planta, of the Environment Agency, said climate change was to blame and that the water levels were impossible to anticipate.

"We were very much prepared for this – we had pumps, we had people working in ops rooms, we had people working 24/7. What we didn't anticipate was that [the River Rother] would come over here.

"It's tragic, our hearts go out to all the residents. Climate change is doing unpredicatable things. This is a result of climate change."

On a visit to Retford Environment Secretary Therese Coffey said residents were asking “why stuff hasn’t happened” since the last major floods in 2007.

She said: “In that time, between 2015 and 2021 we’ve invested £2.6 billion in flood defences right across the country, that was over 300,000 homes. We’re partway through a programme of spending a further £5.2 billion over a six-year time period.”

Ms Coffey added that it may take “several months” for some people to move back into their homes after the flooding.

She said: “But let’s see what we can do to try and speed some of that along and that’s why our officials have already been in touch with insurers and similar.”

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