An Eden community is being galvanised into action to protect itself from flooding.

Residents were called to a public meeting in Appleby after The Sands area of the town suffered serious effects of the River Eden bursting its banks.

Major flood alleviation works had radically improved the situation around Chapel Street but up-river at The Sands there had been no benefit.

Town councillor Hughie Potts said although the scheme "had been brilliant for some places", it had left others at the mercy of rising river waters.

He organised a meeting at the Moot Hall to encourage the town to take an active part in formulating an action plan. Previous talks about protecting The Sands had, he explained, broken down over the type of defences planned.

Coun Potts told The Westmorland Gazette he hoped everyone affected could work together to come up with a compromise.

The meeting agreed a sub-committee should be formed specifically to help about 20 properties in The Sands, who have had the worst flooding problems.

Since the Environment Agency carried out the town's flood alleviation scheme in 1996, The Sands has had two serious floods, with homes and businesses being engulfed by river water.

Coun Potts, who lives and runs his building business on The Sands, said the relief work caused water to "bottleneck" and flood over The Sands.

"It really helped some places, but made others worse off. The worst flood in the last 100 years happened in 1968, when I had five feet of water in my house. It's never been that bad since, but we need to get it sorted at our end of Appleby."