Concerns were flagged up about the beck around the London Street and Union Street area after sustained rain on Saturday morning.

Although it has since receded, Pocklington’s Councillor Martin Cooper says residents whose homes back onto the waterway should keep an eye on its level.

If people do have any concerns, he says their first contact should be the Environment Agency (EA).

He said: “I monitored it on Saturday and I was not too concerned. If we’d had a period of two hours of sustained rain then I would have been concerned.

“The rain seemed to be on and off which seemed to give it chance. There was three days of slow thaw which helped enormously.

“But it was reported to me that there was some debris gathering at the trash guard on London Street.

“We need people to be vigilant, if they see something coming down the beck that shouldn’t be in there and could block it, they need to ring the EA and alert them to the situation.”

Debris was partially blamed for the floods of June 2007 after it blocked the culverts and sent water cascading towards the town centre.

Since then, the council have been working with the EA in a bid to prevent it from backing up again.

A steel guard was bolted across the beck at London Street in a bid to keep larger objects from being swept downstream and lodging in the underground culverts.

Councillor Cooper says he is now trying to arrange a further meeting with the EA and East Riding Council about plans to clear further silt from the beck.

Meanwhile, residents in Stamford Bridge are keeping a close eye on the River Derwent as levels reached worrying levels this week.

Bursting its banks, it has covered sections of the landscape but is yet to breach the defence walls protecting the village centre.