Flood sirens set to be scrapped


08 July 2009 07:32



Sirens that have existed since the second world war to warn people living on the Norfolk coast about the threat of serious flooding are poised to be axed by the end of the month.

A recommendation from senior officers at Norfolk County Council after a three-year study into the sirens' future use has urged councillors to make a final decision and scrap them - because they are unreliable, likely to cause panic, unfit for purpose and cost £42,500 a year to run.

Last night, there was a furious reaction among campaigners who have been trying to save most of the 57 sirens and a pledge to see the bitter row through to a successful conclusion. The campaigners insist the sirens are an essential back-up to the main Environment Agency telephone warning system and should be upgraded.

Their campaign has been fuelled in part by concerns about what would happen if there was a repeat of the east coast floods of 1953, which killed 100 Norfolk people, and many other less serious flooding events since.

The sirens' death knell appears to have been sounded in a report to next Tuesday's Fire and Community Protection Overview and Scrutiny Panel at Norfolk County Council.

John Ellis, the county's head of emergency planning, says in a report that the legal duty to warn people of flooding lies with the Environment Agency, while the responsibility for evacuating people lies, ultimately, with a group chaired by Norfolk police.

The report details how a decision was delayed for a year at members' request to allow for consultation with coastal communities, and outlines the views expressed by the Environment Agency and Norfolk police - who both say they cannot see any situation in which they would ever use the sirens.

Mr Ellis' report recommends the committee asks the council cabinet to withdraw the flood sirens from service at midnight on July 31.

That would be in line with the findings of a cross-party scrutiny group which examined the issue last year, says Mr Ellis.

His report says the group concluded that unless MPs could persuade the police or Environment Agency to change their stance, the county council could not justify spending tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on retaining and maintaining a system which would never be used.

It also says emergency planning officers in Norfolk believed the sirens were not fit for purpose, the system was not reliable and the messages they gave, if heard, were not clearly understood by the community.

The meeting will be held at 10am on Tuesday in the Edwards Room at County Hall.

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