ANOTHER wet week lies ahead for Worcestershire — with the Environment Agency now predicting the River Severn will continue to rise until tomorrow.

But the end could be in sight with the Met Office predicting much drier weather from tomorrow onwards.

River levels continued to rise at the end of last week with flood warnings issued for the River Seven in the Diglis area of Worcester and Upton — where the town’s new flood gates at Dunn’s Lane were closed on Friday morning in an effort to protect homes and businesses from flood water.

Warnings were also issued for the Severn at Hanley Castle, Saxons Lodge, Court Meadow, Kempsey and Callow End as well as the Avon at Wyre Piddle, Strensham and Bredon.

Flood alerts were also issued for the Avon from Evesham to Tewkesbury as well as Bow and Piddle Brook.

Roads including the B4211 Hanley Road in Upton, Mill Bank in Fladbury and the B4080 Pershore Road in Eckington were closed as a result of the flooding while bus services across the county were also disrupted.

Roads including the B4211 Hanley Road in Upton, Mill Bank in Fladbury and the B4080 Pershore Road in Eckington were closed as a result of the flooding while bus services across the county were also disrupted.

Meanwhile one of the busiest roads out of Worcester was closed for two hours on Friday evening while water pumps were installed.

Hylton Road — home to the headquarters of your Worcester News — was closed from McDonald’s at the Hylton Retail park to the junction with Henwick Road from 6.30pm until 8.30pm.

The pumps were used to divert floodwater from the busy road, which is often flooded when the river Severn bursts its banks in the city.

With much of the country suffering from bad weather and flooding, many have said plans by the Environment Agency to cut 550 jobs from its flooding team as a result of government funding cuts will be extremely damaging.

But at a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee on Friday environment secretary Owen Paterson said residents would continue to be protected.

“This government is spending more than any previous government on flood defences — 165,000 properties will be protected by 2015,” he said.


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