Flood victims in Workington fear delays in securing improved defences will leave their homes at risk next winter.

More than a year after homes in the Hall Park View area, Barepot and Camerton were flooded by Storm Desmond, about 30 residents quizzed the Environment Agency and county council on why nothing had been done to better protect them.

Kath Tanner, flood recovery manager for the Environment Agency, said the focus was now moving from repairing existing defences to looking at long-term options to reduce flood risk.

A long list of options would be put together in the coming months, she added, with a shortlist developed for further discussion in the autumn with a view to securing funding for feasible options.

Amanda Wallace, chairman of Workington Flood Action Group, said: "We are going to be facing another winter with no additional protection.

"It's clear Workington has been overlooked in the past. How are we going to protect my members?"

Residents said there were simple measures that could be brought in locally to increase their defences but they were being held up by bureaucracy.

Mrs Tanner said the listing exercise was needed to ensure funding was sought for the right schemes but invited residents to draw up their own schemes and seek funding to be in with a chance of getting work done quicker.

Derek Brown, of Hall Park View, said residents felt they were being double charged for work that should already be happening.

He said: "We all pay our dues. Now we're being asked to provide more money."

Faith Cole, of Camerton Hall, said: "A lot of people in this room work full time. The Environment Agency and other bodies are employed. There should be somebody we can go to and say 'This is the work we need carried out. Please can you help us put this scheme together?'.

But Mrs Tanner said that, with only four people in the agency doing such work across Cumbria, such support was not available.

She added: "I agree some of it is going to be painfully slow. The cold, hard fact is sometimes there isn't going to be money available."

Twenty-eight homes in the Hall Park View area were flooded when Storm Desmond hit, along with the police station, cricket club and bowling club, 10 properties in Barepot, and Camerton Hall.

Tuesday's meeting was held to present the finalised flood investigation report, produced by the Environment Agency and county council to detail what happened during December 2015's flood.

Residents were encouraged to put forward any suggested defence improvements to the flood action group to be fed into the long list.