UK weather flooding latest: M5 motorway reopens after heavy rain submerges rail lines and leaves drivers stranded

Bethan Nimmo
BBC Radio Oxford

Jon House lives in Abingdon in Oxfordshire and describes water rising up through the floorboards in his property.

He decided to evacuate his family, including his six-month-old son, and has expressed a frustration at the lack of action to prevent flooding in the area.

“Nothing’s being done, no money’s being spent to actually stop the houses flooding,” he says.

“If the stream at the back was dredged, if they cleared that out, they could use what they dig out from the stream to create a bit of a barrier as well, just to prevent the flooding coming across.”

But Graham Scholey from the Environment Agency tells BBC Radio Oxford that dredging would not prevent rivers bursting their banks.

“I can understand why people think that dredging and constant de-silting of rivers will prevent out-of-bank flooding,” he says.

“And the reality is it doesn’t – it’s a bit of a sticking plaster.”