Banbury Town centre shops begin clean-up operation after night of heavy rain

Staff at Ryman were spending the day cleaning up the shop after last nights heavy rain fall.

Both The Range on Cherwell Street and Ryman on the High Street were unable to open for business today (Wednesday August 17) after last night’s heavy rain caused damage to the shops.

The downpour also caused ALDI and Tesco to close temporarily last night but both shops have reopened for normal business today.

Banbury’s bus and train stations were also forced to temporarily close last night causing inconvenience to many - thankfully both have now reopened and normal service has been resumed.

Banbury's The Range will remained closed until further notice.

Ryman will remain closed until Friday due to a collapsed roof causing damage to stock and electrical damage to the tills – and The Range has posted a notice on its window telling shoppers it will remain closed until further notice.

Much of the flooding is believed to have happened due to the previous week’s drought which caused the ground to harden and subsequently mean that the rainwater took longer to soak into the ground.

The Banbury BID (Business Improvement District) strategist Jasmine Gilhooly said: “We have popped into businesses after hearing about the terrible floods to see where we can help and support them.

“We have been able to share on our social platforms that some businesses will be opening either later or have had to close whilst they are repairing the damaged areas.

"It’s a real shame that businesses have had to turn custom away but I’m glad to see the full support in the business community”