Oxfordshire floods: Travel disruption as people assess damage

Heavy rain overnight has caused travel disruption in Oxfordshire, whilst those affected by this week’s flooding face an uncertain future.

National Rail said flooding between Bicester North and Banbury had blocked all lines, with train disruption expected until 15:00 BST.

A Met Office yellow weather warning for rain had been in place for the region until about 09:00 BST.

Meanwhile, flooding earlier in the week across the county has left homes under water – with some people facing huge clean-up operations.

Six flood warnings issued by the Environment Agency (EA) for areas near Kidlington, Bampton and Chiselhampton remain in place.

It said river levels were still high on parts of the River Thames and it was expecting some properties to be flooded.

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has urged motorists not to drive through flood water, and said many highways had been affected.

Rail services in the north of the county have also been heavily disrupted.

David Heathfield, head of corporate affairs at Chiltern Railways, said it had been a “very challenging morning on the rail lines”.

He told BBC Radio Oxford there were “big patches” of both standing and running water above the level of the rails between Banbury and Bicester, meaning it was “obviously not safe to run services”.

The water had began to recede, Mr Heathfield said, adding that the line would “hopefully” reopen in the “near future”.

Stagecoach said its H5 bus was unable to reach Ambrosden and Barton in either direction because of road closures in Islip.

Delays to its S7 service were also being caused by a fallen tree, which had partially blocked the A4095 in Witney near the junction for Lower Road, it added.

Tesco’s Abingdon Extra store has reopened earlier than expected after closing on Wednesday because its car park had flooded.

Homes across Oxfordshire were left with flood damage after parts of the county saw more than 10cm (4ins) of rain fall over Sunday and Monday.

Graham Scholey, a biodiversity technical specialist at the EA, said the rainfall on Thursday night was likely to cause river levels to rise in Upper Cherwell.

“With a dry day forecast for tomorrow, we’re hoping it’ll give a chance for this pulse of flood water to move through the system,” he said.

“We just need to be vigilant and we’ll obviously be monitoring levels very closely.”

Darren Butler, from Kidlington, has been told by his insurance company that he and his family will have to move out of their property for six months whilst it is made safe after it flooded on Monday.

In the meantime, the father of four is having to find a suitable place for him and his family to move in to whilst the clean-up is taking place.

“Letting agents are absolutely overwhelmed at the moment, and the properties that we’ve asked about, the ones that are available for six-month lets have got maybe four, five, six people looking at the same one,” he said.

“It’s a bun fight now to to get somewhere – certainly locally – so we may end up having to go further afield.”

The BBC spoke to letting agents in the Kidlington area who said finding short-term lets in the area was not easy at the best of times.

They added there was nowhere near the supply of properties needed to meet the demand, and since the floods on Monday they had been getting more calls from families who needed somewhere to go.

In a post on social media, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon Layla Moran said she had met with residents who had been affected by this week’s flooding.

She said she had contacted relevant agencies to “ask for urgent support” for people in Abingdon, having seen the “devastating impact” of the floods.