County river festival cancelled (From Evesham Journal)

County river festival cancelled

10:06am Saturday 7th July 2012 in News By Sarah Taylor

UPDATE EVESHAM River Festival has been cancelled due to bad weather.

The organisers held of until this morning before making the decision but the rising waters of the River Avon forced them to cancel the festival.

Terry Smith, who has organised the Flotilla alongside Jackie Bailey and was set to lead the 50th anniversary Flotilla down the Avon, said he was disappointed.

"We held of making the decision until this morning but we had to cancel for health and safety reasons," said Mr Smith.

"We had hoped to carry on with the festival despite the Flotilla being cancelled but the water is quite high although not yet in the Workman Gardens.

"Of course we are very disappointed but we are hoping to hold the Flotilla later this summer, although the festival will not take place later."

A flood warning is in place for the River Avon between Vale village Salford Priors and Tewkesbury.

Meanwhile a dog nearly had to be rescued from the River Severn when it was swept upstream.

The dog was being walked by his owner along the bank of the river near the city centre when he was swept away.

Firefighters were close by at the Community Safety event being held at Pitchcroft although in the end they didn't need to assist the dog as he made his own way out the river unhurt.

TWO flood alerts are still in place in Worcestershire after yesterday’s deluge.

The heavy rain fell for most of the day causing the closure of roads across the county including the M50 near Malvern.

Barbourne Brook and the Lower Teme and its tributaries downstream of Ludlow remain on flood alert toady.

There is water on the A4103 at the bottom of Fromes Hill this morning but the road is passable.

A number of people had to be rescued from flash floods during yesterday’s downpour including three elderly people in Norton near Worcester.

The three became trapped in two and a half feet of water at the junction between Church Lane and Woodbury Lane. They were all removed from the car and brought to safety at around 4.30pm.

Earlier on in the day a man and three women were also released from a car that had been trapped in flood water.

The fireservice were called to Birts Street in Birtsmorton near Malvern at about 2.20pm and the four were rescued with one woman being treated for anxiety.