Why York must step out of the shadows of the Boxing Day floods

A few days ago Anya Mathewson had a phone call. It was from a lady in Australia who had booked one of the holiday homes she manages in central York. She’s not due to arrive until February, but was worried she may have to cancel the trip.

“She’s going to be staying in a road which never floods, but when all you’ve seen are those pictures of flooded streets it’s easy to understand why people think that the city has closed down,” says Anya, who owns Letters Property Management. “We’re a month on and there is a delicate balance to be struck. We want people to remember that we still need support, but we also want them to forget that this ever happened. When they think of York we don’t want them to instantly think of the floods.”

While just two of Anya’s holiday lets and all her residential properties escaped the floods, her own premises, along with a dozen others along Walmgate were not so lucky. Just a couple of minutes walk from York’s historic Shambles, in recent years the street has attracted a number of new businesses. The attraction is obvious. It’s just along from Fossgate, which is fast becoming a foodie hub, and until Boxing Day the properties, unlike those which line the River Ouse, had also never flooded.

“I wasn’t registered with the Environment Agency’s Floodline, because there had never been any need. The last time Walmgate hit was back in the 1980s and even then it was just the road which flooded.”

A month on from the disaster and most of those wandering around Walmgate are workmen. They are busy ripping out floorboards and assessing when damaged plasterwork can be replaced in the shops and restaurants where signs refer customers to an entrance at the back or to a phone number to call for assistance. One says simply, ‘Please bear with us, we will be operating as best we can’. At Letter’s, the staff have decamped to the first floor, 11 of them sharing eight desks, with Anya sometimes using the stairs as a makeshift office.

There have been a number of public meetings to discuss what happened in York, with many demanding a full inquiry as to why the Fossgate flood barrier was raised. The decision caused water to sweep into a number of properties, but for Anya there are other more pressing questions.

“I want to know what my insurance premiums will be and what the excess will be set, but I won’t find out until I renew my policy in September. I’ve heard that the excess in properties which have a history of flooding can run to thousands. If that’s the case you can see why people don’t bother. Why pay for a policy you will never be able to claim on? There are questions that need to be answered, but we need to make sure they are the right ones. The real issue is that the pumps couldn’t cope with the amount of water which came down the River Foss and that’s they the barrier was raised.”

It took three days for the water to recede in Walmgate by which time the paper archives from Anya’s business, stored in a understairs cupboard, had been destroyed along with the carpets and all the office furniture.

“It was the smell that hit you first. Cardboard boxes had floated from the front to the back office, pairs of shoes which had been kept under desk were scattered around. It was like a mini-tsunami had swept through the place and yet the tops of the desks were just as we’d left them. It was very eerie.

“I’m quite pragmatic, but it’s the small things that catch you out. I’m getting married this year and just before the holidays the invitations arrived from the printers. I’d left them in the office and when I found them they were covered in a brown sludge. Of course they can be replaced, but I guess it’s those really personal items that give you a lump in the throat.”

Speak to any of those who were hit by the floods and talk soon turns to the outbreak of community spirit. While Anya was tearing up the carpet in her office there was a knock on the door from a group who had come from Birmingham to help. Closer to home, resident groups rallied donations of cleaning products, food and bedding. The response was impressive, yet there is now a sense of frustration that those efforts haven’t been mirrored in some official quarters.

Opposite Letters is Hambleton Furniture. It’s three weeks now since Wendy Hudson cleared the shop floor, but they are still waiting for industrial dryers. “I’ve been told they will be here tomorrow morning, but I’m not holding my breath. The building is owned by a conservation trust and I’ve been told that all their dryers are being used in Cumbria. Surely though they could get some from elsewhere?”

Wendy has been manager at Hambleton’s for 24 years and seeing the doors closed, albeit temporarily, is difficult.

“I’m used to working six days a week and that’s what I want to get back to doing. We are lucky in that we have a lot of regular customers. While we might not have a shop we are still trading, but it’s not easy. I had one gentleman ring up wanting to order a wardrobe, but the only way he had of paying was on a credit card. The machines are linked to a specific address and at the moment we have no power, so I just can’t process those kind of transactions.

“We have to be open by March, we just can’t risk being closed any longer. In the meantime my son’s girlfriend is going to set me up a Facebook page. I have no idea what a Facebook page is, but I need to use every way there is to say, ‘We are still here. Don’t forget us’.

Certainly social media was key to the initial clean-up operation. It was one of Anya’s staff members Emma Davis who set up the Bishopthorpe Solidarity With York Flood Victims page and she is still co-ordinating not just the delivery of donated items, but also acting as an unofficial go between affected residents and York City Council.

“There are still people sleeping on contaminated beds either because they didn’t know they had to throw out everything contaminated by flood water or because they don’t think they can afford to replace anything until they receive insurance payments. It’s so sad, people just aren’t aware of what help is out there. I set the Facebook group up because I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing, but I never expected it to take off in the way that it has. I’m honestly not exaggerating when I say it has been life-changing.”

At Letters the dryers are on full-blast and while there is much work to do, Anya remains optimistic about the future.

“On the residential side we are actually busier than normal because of the floods and the need for temporary accommodation and I’m hopeful the holiday lets will hold up. I took on the business 10 years ago and while I would never have wanted to be flooded I am thinking of it as an opportunity to rebrand the business.”

It’s that glass half-full attitude which might just ensure that York lives up to the promise that it is still open for business.