The Daily Express has been criticised for running a story suggesting that the “entire” city of York has been submerged in the floods.
The City of York council has spoken to the editors about the misleading coverage and there have been changes.
Social media users have reacted with a mixture of laughter and anger at the totally inaccurate picture of the situation in the city and the damage such coverage does.
It appeared to be based on pictures of the river and St George’s Field car park.
The article said: “Pictures show the city of York submerged underwater as cars are left stranded and pubs are swamped.”
While it has been a bad experience for those who live by the river, as usual most of York has been completely dry.
Andrew Waller, Executive Member for the Economy on the City of York Council said it was reckless
“Well, it’s very disappointing.
“Whilst the floods have been high and people have worked very hard to contain them, they are within the seasonal norms.
Later he added:
The council did take up the matter with the Express and said they needed to correct the impression created. Residents from York and businesses also contacted them too.
“So it was helpful to see that they have done that now because ensuring that people feel that York can be visited is really important during the half-term holidays.”
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This video was taken yesterday in York.
It shows how, although many properties by the side of it ARE affected and do have a big clean up to do again, most of the city is too high to be flooded.
The areas round the River Foss are dependent on the barrier.
One Facebook user said of the article:
“I know a lot of houses and businesses are effected by the flooding which is awful but Entire city submerged slight exaggeration there!”
Another said
“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!”
and “Lazy Click-Bait”
Simon Cartwright of Indigo Greens Estate Agents said:
“Well, it does make you think they’re clearly not in the city whilst they’re actually making comments like this.
“I understand that you need to work to get people to have a look at the stories but at the same time, there has to be the truth behind the story.
“The sensationalist headlines just really don’t help!
“You can report that things like the King’s Arms flooded but don’t say that the entire city is flooded because it’s actually damaging to the whole of York.”
Later on Wednesday he praised the paper for updating its online coverage with a new headline “York open for business! Flooding eases as tourists make way back to historic location”
Simon had been talking to one of the journalists on Twitter to express his thoughts.