FLOOD barriers went up in Upton-upon-Severn yesterday as the Environment Agency warned heavy overnight rain could lead to flooding.

The barriers were put up by the agency at lunchtime to protect homes and businesses, despite no flood alerts being made on the river Severn just yet.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said with heavy rain forecast for yesterday evening they wanted to take precautions.

He said: “The barriers have gone up as a precaution due to the weather and there is expected to be more rain over the weekend, so it is a measure that we take to protect the town.

“We are expecting the water to get to a level for the first stage of the barriers to need to go up.”

The spokesman said that members of the public should keep an eye on the website environment-agency.gov.uk which has up-to-date information about flood warnings and alerts.

Currently, the Severn in Worcestershire has no flood warnings.

However the Avon, which runs through Evesham, is on alert, meaning flooding is possible.

Worcester News weatherman Paul Damari said heavy rain was expected this weekend.

“We have already had almost an inch of rain in Worcestershire this last week, and the ground is saturated from the snow melt.

“There is heavy rain expected also in Wales, meaning the water levels will rise there and come this way.

“We have a band of rain also coming down to our area due to a cold front, and this will happen on Sunday. It is going to rain heavily most of Sunday, so we are expected to have around half an inch of rain.

“It may even rain heavier in the higher areas of Wales, adding to the amount of water on the ground, and so there maybe around two inches of water falling in a seven day period, which is a lot of water and will make the river levels high,” he said.

Mr Damari said next week was expected to be sunnier and drier.

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