Officials insisted that the “phenomenal” rainfall which hit the region would have overwhelmed any defence strategy.

They added that dredging the river at Cockermouth would have made “no difference whatsoever” to last weekend’s flooding. The Agency said that dredging in fast-flowing rivers was an ineffective way of reducing flood risk.

“Dredging has more of an impact in managing more frequent flood events when you are trying to contain the flood within the river banks,” said Agency head of asset management Jim Barlow. “In this kind of event any in-channel works is of limited value.”

Barlow added that localised dredging can simply transfer flood risk to more vulnerable areas further downstream. More than 1,300 properties were flooded after record rainfall over parts of Cumbria between Wednesday and Friday.

Cockermouth’s flood defences were last upgraded following the floods of January 2005. Then, £100,000 was spent raising them to provide protection against a 1 in 100 year event.

There are no plans to further upgrade these defences, but Barlow said that it was “pretty much guaranteed” that the defences would be reviewed. The agency will want to see if they remain the most cost effective flood management solution for the town.

Carlisle escaped serious flooding after £38M was spent on flood defences since the last flood in 2005.

The defences are still under construction, but were sufficiently complete that they were able to protect properties after they were beefed up with temporary flood defences.

The temporary measures held, with the peak river level coming within 50mm of the top of flood barriers.

Where the flood defences were complete, flood water levels were 550mm below the top of the barriers.

Assessing the damage

Environment Agency engineers were out across Cumbria over the weekend, checking flood defences, inspecting reservoirs, deploying pumping equipment and clearing debris from rivers.

“As the flood water has receded over the weekend, our focus has switched from minimising flood damage to clearing watercourses and making sure that the rivers can flow as freely as possible,” said Agency operations director David Jordan.

“We are now assessing the damage and checking flood defences, and will be working with emergency services and local authorities to get people back into their homes as quickly as possible.”

More than 80,000t of quarry stone was used to divert a tributary of the River Derwent, helping to keep the stream within its banks and allowing the nearby A66 to reopen.

Away from Cumbria, river levels on the Severn were being closely monitored and the Agency installed temporary defences to protect properties in Shrewsbury and Bewdley.

Environment Agency chief executive Paul Leinster said the floods were a “stark reminder” of how vulnerable parts of the UK are during extreme events. He said the Agency would continue to progress schemes like the one in Carlisle and would ensure that it prevented inappropriate development on the floodplain.

The Environment Agency has issued more than 90 flood warnings including seven severe flood warnings across the country in the past week following heavy rainfall.

Cumbria was worst hit. In Seathwaite, 314mm of rain fell, the highest daily rainfall since records began in 1914.

As NCE went to press, 582mm of rain had fallen in Seathwaite since 16 November. Northside Bridge in Workington collapsed early on Saturday morning.

Five more bridges − North-side Footbridge in Workington, Lorton Bridge near Cockermouth, Newlands Beck Bridge near Keswick, Camerton Footbridge linking Great Clifton with Camerton and the suspension footbridge over River Eamont near Dalemain − had collapsed by the end of the day.

A seventh bridge − the Calva Bridge in Calvington − was also closed amid fears that it would collapse too.

Severe travel disrupted roads and railways follow the floods with the worst affected town being Cockermouth where water levels reached 2.5m.