WYRE Forest's newly appointed emergency planning chief admitted Bewdley and Stourport's flooding crisis threw him in at the deep end just as he was getting to grips with the new job.

Peter Jones in the corporate policy unit at Wyre Forest District Council was away on a Home Office emergency planning training course when the River Severn burst its banks last Wednesday.

Mr Jones' training course happened to be in York which was soon to turn into the biggest flood disaster area of all. He said: "I was only there a short time before I had to abandon the course and get back sharpish."

His role is central in the co-ordinating group dealing with the disaster which brings together the council with fire, policy, ambulance and the Environment Agency.

He has overseen the issue of 5,500 sandbags by council workers who have done "a fantastic" job filling them up and distributing them from a council yard in Green Street.

His work also takes in provision for evacuees including bed and breakfast and helping to distribute health and safety advice.