The government's floods minister has visited west Cumbria this morning to see first-hand how repairs are being made to flood defences.

As part of her visit, Thérèse Coffey also met Cockermouth toy shop owner Jonty Chippendale, who was flooded in 2009 and 2015, but has since used a £5,000 grant to install flood resilience measures.

Work to repair flood defences the area is expected to cost £10m and includes removing debris and gravel from rivers, reinforcing flood defence walls and repairing pumping stations.

A total of £72m is also being invested in Cumbrian flood defences in order to protect 4,300 properties, while a further £3m is being spent to look at different options for flood defence schemes across the county.

They will include contributions from local communities, members of the public, private and third sector organisations, as set out in the Cumbria Floods Partnership Action plan.

"We’re committed to better protecting Cumbria from flooding and that’s why our investment will better protect 4,300 homes and businesses," Thérèse Coffey said.

"With the £10m programme to repair Cumbria’s defences now almost finished we are now looking a further ways to protect the country, working closely to the community, and making sure homes are better prepared."

Mr Chippendale, whose flood resilience measures included moving electrical sockets up the wall of the shop, added: "When we flooded it was dreadful, but once the water had gone we soon realised we had a choice. We could either give up or take control, and so we used a government grant to make our property more resilient.

"Hopefully we are proof that you can bounce back. But if you just wait for something to happen, it won't."

Andy Brown, the Environment Agency's flood and coastal risk manager for Cumbria said: "We know the devastating impact the 2015 floods had on people’s lives and livelihoods.

"A lot of hard work has gone into repairing and restoring damage caused by the floods and rebuilding, not just physical things like walls and bridges, but refocusing on our commitment to build long term partnerships because we can manage flood risk more effectively together in Cumbria.

"We are now conducting a £3m appraisal to gather scientific data to identify longer-term solutions to reducing flood risk.

"We’ll be going back to local communities soon with a list of potential options, so we can include local insight as we identify how we can manage local flood risk in the future."