The Carlisle Flood Action Group is urging the authorities to come up with a "clear and strong strategic plan" to ensure the city does not suffer from extreme flooding in the future.

In its newly-published report, Storm Desmond - Carlisle 12 Months On, the group wants any action that is taken to be implemented across the whole of a river's catchments - and backs an idea to create a new Flood Authority which would be separate from the Environment Agency.

The group has spent the last year analysing what caused the flooding in the city and outlining what it thinks needs to be done in the future.

One of the things the group, led by John Kelsall, has not been impressed with is the progress made in protecting Carlisle in the future, according to the report.

It states: "As conditions currently stand the city and catchment does not appear to be in a fundamentally better place than 12 months ago."

Plus, criticism has been laid at the agency's door for speed in responding.

The report claims: "The Environment Agency was very slow to assess works which could provide short-term contingency benefits – many such projects were not commenced until the autumn of 2016."

The Environment Agency addressed concerns raised by the report.

A spokeswoman said: "Immediately after the flooding, our staff inspected all of our flood defences and made an assessment of what repairs and debris removal was needed.

"Work was then prioritised with emergency works undertaken immediately.

"The wider recovery programme was then planned early in the New Year. Timing of work was prioritised according to levels of damage and flood risk.

"The defences in Carlisle overtopped but were not damaged, meaning we worked first in other locations where defences were damaged.

"We also took into consideration other factors such as public health and safety and weather conditions.

"In other locations, we were only able to work when river levels were low enough."

The situation was further explained by Kathryn Tanner, the agency's flood recovery manager for Cumbria and Lancashire.

She said: "The objective overall [initially] has been to get people to the save level of protection as they were before the floods. That has been the top priority as we can't leave people with a low level of protection.

"But there was been frustration because we would like to have gone further."

Ms Tanner added: "People want us to give them a better level of protection and that's something we are working towards."

Andy Brown, the Environment Agency's flood risk manager for Cumbria said it is a complex job.

He said: "We have to make sure we aren't harming anywhere else when doing any work."

Dredging has been an issue which the agency says has been a hot topic when talking to communities.

In its report, the flood action group says: "It is strongly recommended that gravel profiling (dredging) is now re-introduced to maintain river channels at their maximum efficiency and in a coordinated way."

It used the example of the Botcherby Bridge area, on Warwick Road, where a build up of gravel and questions over the design of the bridge contributed, the report says, to causing an "extreme pinch point".

"Although some gravel has been removed from this location it is too little too late and the design of the bridge remains in question," the report added.

Ms Tanner continued: "Over this year we have removed 120,000 tonnes of gravel [from water courses]."

The gravel would fill 5,555 wagons and if lined up it would cover the distance between Carlisle and Lancaster, the agency says.

In total, agency staff have dealt with 159 repair projects across Cumbria and Lancashire.