The following notice has meen issued by the Flood Warning Service of the Environment Agency.  

From now and over the next few weeks, the Flood Warning Service will be intermittently automated.

This is because some Environment Agency staff are taking industrial action.

The automation will mean we can continue to warn and inform partners and communities if we should not have enough duty officers to issue warnings manually.

We will use existing flood warning and forecasting systems to automatically send standardised flood warning message content for all existing fluvial flood warnings when required during periods of industrial action. This is a temporary solution to sustain our flood warning service during periods of industrial action.

Currently we know that automation will be taking place between now and 2nd January, however there may be some short periods when the normal service is resumed.

What this means for you:

Flood alerts and warnings will still trigger, however they will be generic and will not have local information within them. Please do continue to use the Flood Line for further information (0345 988 1188, 24-hour service).

Regrettably, there may be some flood alerts and flood warning issued overnight. Some alerts and warnings may also be triggered in error, for example extreme cold has been known to affect some gauges.

Please note that severe flood warnings are not automated.

Thank you for your understanding. If you have any further questions please contact:
    fim.wal@environment-agency.gov.uk

Please circulate this information as appropriate.

Flood Resilience Team, Thames Area