Left high and dry! Kent villagers ‘betrayed’ by lack of flood help

They are also nervously watching the levels of the Beult river, which slices through their much loved village, and the nearby volatile Teise and Medway rivers.

So far all three rivers are flowing peacefully and low, but everyone knows just how terrifyingly quickly they can rise into a furious tempest as they did last Christmas Day when they immersed hundreds of homes in five feet of freezing flood waters.

More than 30 villagers had to be rescued, some by canoe, when they should have been sitting down to enjoy turkey and Christmas pudding.

Both David Cameron and Prince Charles visited the shell shocked community days afterwards to offer help and support.

Now, after ten months of misery, some are back in their homes and smiles are returning as they use their new cookers and fridges, walk on virgin carpets and relax on new sofas.

However, other villagers complain that they have been left high and dry because of broken promises, barmy bureaucracy and a slowness to prevent another devastating flood.

Even now some homes are not insured because of the sky high payments, fuelled partly because of last year's flood and a particularly bad one in 2000.

Former soldier Sean Matthews, one of the heroes of the hour, talks darkly of being betrayed by everyone from David Cameron down to the Chairwoman of Parish Council, Geraldine Brown, who lives a few houses away and is herself just about getting her home back together again.

Sean, 55, risked his life by literally swimming and walking in the raging waters for four hours, helping 17 year old Simon Joseph rescue scores of frightened people in his canoe.

While Simon won personal praise from Prince Charles, Sean's role was forgotten.

The hurt intensified when he realised that despite the lofty pledges, no one was writing cheques to help him foot the bill for the damage caused to his £500,000 home, called Beultside.

He had not been able to pay for the insurance because it was so high due to flood risk.

"The flood has brought us to the brink of ruin because we haven't had a penny, despite all the grand promises," said Sean.

"There was the chance of a £5,000 grant but there was so much hassle with form filling and conditions it was a waste of time.

"I've done all the work myself because I can do a bit of DIY but it has still cost me at least £30,000.

"I put new radiators in and I trying to work out how to connect them all up so we can keep warm in the winter.

"We do feel a sense of betrayal because all this help was offered but in practical terms it wasn't delivered for us."

He still gets flashback memories of how he helped his stroke victim mother Pearl, 74, into Simon's canoe along with his daughter Natasha, 24, and her daughter, Lily, now two.

"As we struggled through the water I thought if the canoe tipped over who would I grab because the current was so fast it would have taken them away," Sean recalled, close to tears.

"We came close to tragedy, so you have to be thankful we all survived."

Erica Oliveres, 50, won ten seconds of fame with her fiery televised verbal attack against visiting David Cameron over the slowness to get the power back on and lack of skips.

Pictures of her berating the Prime Minister were beamed around the country.

After hearing of her plight, an ashen Mr Cameron vowed to get on to the council for her.

Like Sean, the high insurance costs had proved too much for her and her house was not covered, and she says promises of help have not been met.

"We've been completely let down," she said, inside her newly decorated cottage.

"We have scrimped and saved for ten months and we are just about back to normal but we can't afford a boiler so we rely on a log burner to heat the house.

"We've spent £10,000 from savings and there is still a few thousand to spend but we will get there.

"These grants were all too complicated.

"My husband Pablo is an accountant and he couldn't work it out, so we just got on and did the work ourselves.

"The borough council wanted to charge £25 to take away five items, so we just put all the damaged property in the shed because we can't afford to get it taken way.

"I couldn't say what I think of David Cameron in a family paper."

Parish Council chairwoman Geraldine Brown insists Erica and Sean are the exception and that most villagers are happy with the way the crisis was managed.

"Help has been offered to those who needed it but some have taken it up and some haven't," she said as a new cooker was delivered to her 15th century insured house, where her garden is still littered with flood damaged toilets, furniture and a microwave.

"Myself and others have worked our butts off for the community and so I do find it disappointing when I hear these complaints," she added.

"I'm very proud of the way we all pulled together."

Postmaster Tim Chapman was one of the lucky ones who could get home insurance, although his home is yards from the unpredictable Beult.

Now he has given up using the badly damaged ground floor and is building a new floor on his house.

There is still scaffolding up months after the deluge.

"Our only trouble was getting building permission for the changes, which took far too long," he said.

Both Kent County Council and Maidstone Borough said they provided free skips, heaters, de humidifiers and offered services to help people.

Some £30,000 has been paid out in grants to make properties more flood resistant and some £132,233 in council tax discounts has been awarded.

Affected businesses have also got business rate relief.

Some 15,000 leaflets on what to do in a flood emergency have been distributed and recently the Environment Agency arranged for villagers to visit the Leigh Barrier on the Medway which is due to be raised by a metre in 2018 to prevent flooding.

There is also a plan to put a similar barrier, which reduces flow, on the Beult, but that won't happen until 2019 and the total cost is an eye watering £35 million.

The parish council has improved its e-mail flood warnings and is recruiting flood wardens, but has so far resisted calls for an air raid style siren.