New flood warning service for residents

A total of 30 homes and businesses upstream of Farnley Lake will be able to sign up to the Floodline Warnings Direct service, and receive personalised updates that can be sent to landlines, mobile phones, pagers and faxes, or by email and text message.

The service for the new area will go live next Wednesday which means that residents who have signed up to the service will receive an update when the Environment Agency issues a flooding warning for the area.

Sharon Sawyer, of the Environment Agency, said: “Floods don’t just happen to other people, as the people along Wortley Beck know only too well. This area has a history of flooding and we have been working hard to help those people whose homes are at risk.

“In early November residents at risk of flooding will get an automated telephone message to say that we have registered their landline number to receive the service. Once people receive the message we would like them to give us a ring so that they can tell us how they want to receive our updates in future.”

The new flood warning service represents a further step in the Agency and Leeds Council’s work to reduce the problems flooding causes in Wortley.

The Environment Agency has provided the council with £136,000 to fund two flood resilience schemes for nearly 30 of the worst affected properties in Hough End and Lower Wortley. In the coming months residents will receive individual flood protection equipment that can be used during a flood.

The Environment Agency and the council have also been working with the residents from the Pudsey Road/Butt Lane area to develop a Flood Plan. This describes how they will work together in a flooding emergency,