UK flooding live updates: York reaches record high water levels as bill 'could top £1.5 billion'

David Cameron will visit flood-stricken areas today

Hundreds of people in York were evacuated after river levels reached record highs PA
Mr Bowden said: “You would have thought David Cameron had learnt the lesson from the floods of 2013/14. Apparently not.



”As things stand, the number of staff who will be available to deal with flooding out of hours is due to fall. There will be a meeting in mid-January 2016 to discuss how many jobs will be cut and where. This meeting should be called off.

“This month's weather and flooding are yet another reminder of the foolhardy stupidity of the Government making spending cuts to the Environment Agency.

The GMB union has criticised planned staff cuts at the Environment Agency, which it said would reduce the number of personnel able to respond to floods out of hours.

National officer Justin Bowden said a meeting due in the middle of January to decide how many jobs should go in which parts of the country as part of a funding squeeze should be halted.

See the latest road closures in York below.Some roads have reopened.Please take care when driving to,or around,York