I am writing to complain about the EA website for flood warnings. Since it was changed from the previous version around the second half of last year it has become a joke. To make matters worse when anyone calls the EA to get an explanation the staff do not know the answers either. They are very polite but completely uninformed.

 

At the present time your site is displaying Old Windsor as being in both a Flood Watch state and an All Clear state. If I enter the search term River and then Thames and go through the pages until I find Old Windsor it shows it as being All Clear which it most certainly isn't. To make matters worse the way areas are listed on the Thames is ridiculous. It jumps from one part of the Thames to another with no obvious reason. Surely it would make sense to actually list the towns in the order they appear on the Thames ?  This would make the information much more relevant as you would be able to check upstream to see what might be coming down. This problem with showing two different states appears with every town I have entered making the system next to useless. On top of this I have had reports this morning of EA phone calls being made to residents of Wraysbury telling them about flooding in Iver and Fulmer. These towns are 8-10 miles away and are not on the Thames at all.

 

What on earth is going on ?

 

At a time when trust in the EA is practically non existent why on earth is no one sorting the organisation out ?

 

As an organisation with the responsibilities you have, why are we having such stupid mistakes, why is no one monitoring the phone calls or the website ?

 

As a flood warden for Old Windsor I get sick and tired of the numerous complaints about the EA and how it chooses to inform people of flooding issues. The signs we put out are absolutely ridiculous. Why one level of Blue and three of Red ? No one can look at a board quickly when driving past and get any useful information from them. You do not even need four states of flooding. The old traffic light system worked perfectly. People could take a brief glance and see exactly what the situation was and act accordingly. Now all the information is obscured and next to useless.

 

It is about time someone sorted the whole organisation out and spent a bit more time communicating with the people you should be protecting and actually listening and acting on what they say.

 

A very disgusted

 

John Lee

Flood Warden

Old Windsor