CAMPAIGNERS frustrated over lack of progress over Windermere flood defences may travel to Westminster to lobby Government officials directly.

A meeting of the Windermere Lake Levels Group last week heard that funding problems had crippled any efforts to bring matters forward and new efforts were required as the constant worry of residences and businesses close to the lake being flooded remained very real.

"The bottom line is that there is no money available and it's very frustrating," said WLLG chair Wally Francis.

And MP Tim Farron took the fight to the House of Commons this week when, during a debate on flooding, he said the communities around Windermere had been "completely ignored" in the Government’s plans.

"They remain exposed and vulnerable and subject to whatever the weather throws at them next," the Westmorland and Lonsdale MP told the House.

"Of all the businesses in Cumbria closed by Storm Desmond, one in ten of them are around Windermere lake – and yet the Government plans to do precisely nothing for them.

“I want the minister to intervene with emergency funding to protect those communities in Grange, in Backbarrow and around Windermere who currently face the future with no protection.

"We need to build capacity to take water out of Windermere at times of high rainfall in order to protect the communities on its banks.

"I presented the minister with the case for such a scheme made by one of my constituents and I look forward to hearing her response to that.”

The area by Windermere and alongside the River Leven at the south end of the lake suffered serious flood damage November 2009 and again during Storm Desmond in December 2015.

In the wake of the devastation, a major report was complied by the Environment Agency which concluded that two major options were available, namely a 4.8km underground culvert costing £29.3 million to divert excess water from Windermere during a storm or a £3.6million package of works including dredging and defence walls in the Newby Bridge area and work to increase water flow at the 'bottleneck' Backbarrow Bridge.

An alternative plan out forward by a number of residents with expertise in the field suggested an overground pipeline beside the Lakeside to Haverthwaite railway to siphon off excess water when heavy rainfall threatened a flood.

However, all three plans face major challenges in funding in view of the limited Government funding available.

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Mr Francis said the group had requested project modelling to be done to research the effectiveness and costing, but they were dismayed to be told by EA officials that they were bound by Treasury funding procedures and there was at present no funding available to finance the approximate £10,000 cost of the modelling.

He said as even this initial step was now proving problematic, it was now difficult to see how significant progress could be made and residents and businesses were now reluctantly looking at smaller scale 'resilience' flood measures such as flood defence doors.