Update on Storm Dennis - floods subside in Banburyshire

Land in south Northants and down the River Cherwell to Heyford remains flooded. Picture by Paul Mobbs

Storm Dennis brought high winds and rain to the country at the weekend and fallen trees are still being dealt with in the Banbury area, while farmland remains saturated and flooded in parts.

The Environment Agency floodwatch says: "River levels remain high but continue to fall on the River Cherwell following Storm Dennis.

"Therefore, the risk of flooding is reducing. Further rainfall showers are forecast over the next 12 hours but rainfall totals are forecast to be low. The risk of flooding from Storm Dennis has now reduced and we anticipate removing our flood alert tomorrow. We are closely monitoring the situation.

Environment Agency flood teams say river levels are subsiding. Picture by Paul Mobbs

"Our incident response staff are in the area clearing weed and trash screens."

Oxfordshire County Council's highways workers were on duty all night during the height of the storm on Saturday to deal with problems as they arose.

Issues were mainly flooding, fallen trees and standing water on Oxfordshire's roads.

A spokesman said: "From 9am on Saturday - 9am on Sunday our highways teams dealt with more than 60 incidents on Oxfordshire’s roads – including overnight. The large majority of those were to do with fallen trees and debris of fallen large branches. Since 9am on Sunday they’ve dealt with even more – so in total more than 100 incidents.

"The focus has since shifted to flooding. None of them are in the Banburyshire area and the only ones in Cherwell are in Islip where the River Ray is one of threef flood warnings from the Environment Agency.

A number of trees were reported to have fallen including a large tree in the driveway of Banbury Cricket Club in Bodicote, a tree down over the B4035 near Broughton and a large tree down blocking the A361 temporarily at Wardington.