Flood scare meeting lowers fear.

EMERGENCY services have met householders in a Northumberland town to discuss their response to a recent scare which threatened a repeat of devastating flooding 10 months ago.

A flood warning was issued in Morpeth by the Environment Agency on Friday July 17 when torrential rain saw levels rise in the River Wansbeck before the weather relented to averted a repeat of September last year, when more than 1,000 homes and businesses were flooded.

At a public meeting local people learned more about the response of the 999 services, the Environment Agency and Northumberland County Council.

Representatives of the various agencies explained their roles on July 17 and answered questions from the meeting, organised by the Morpeth Flood Action Group (MFAG). It is hoped issues and concerns raised will be used by the county council in its new Flood Action Plan, due to be published in September.

Yesterday MFAG chairman, Alan Bell, said: "The meeting was a useful exercise and most people had their minds clarified about what happened on Friday 17 and how ready the various agencies were to deal with an incident. We felt that the emergency services had everything in hand that night, and people felt a lot safer this time round and that the services would do the right thing.'' He said the MFAG would be pursuing Northumbrian Water to take action over drainage problems which are felt to be exacerbating the flood threat.