PEOPLE living in Ludlow held their breath and sandbags were issues as the town prepared to the hit by flooding.

The level of the River Corve in the town rose by two metres in just a few hours, recalling memories of a decade ago when a house and a bridge were washed away by flood waters.

But the rain stopped just in time and so while areas around the Linney were left under water it is not thought that there was any significant damage to homes.

The flood alert was a result of very heavy rain that fell over the town and surrounding hills from Sunday evening into early Tuesday morning.

Things had looked very worrying on Monday evening when by 8pm the River Corve had risen by two metres since midday resulting in the distribution of sandbags to people and properties at risk in what has been described as a ‘precautionary measure.’

Fortunately at that time the rain started to ease off and river levels slowly began to fall.

But, on Tuesday morning, people awoke to find standing water on the floodplain of the River Corve from the A49 by-pass through to the Linney.

The River Teme was also heavily swollen, leaving the play and picnic areas as well as the tennis courts under water.

“This was a close call,” said Andy Boddington who sits for Ludlow North on Shropshire Council.

“If the rain had continued, we could well have seen houses flooded in lower Corve Street and Temeside.

“Ludlow is getting better prepared for heavy rainfall.”

But he said that further steps need to be taken and believes that a project known as ‘slow the flow’ that aims to reduce the speed at which flood water enters the River Corve will help.

Andy Boddington said that the latest scare must act as a warning.

He has revealed that he is asking Ludlow Food Centre to plant trees around its planned new car park to reduce the risk of ‘run-off’ and soak up water.

In addition to this, he will be asking for work including the planting of trees to mitigate against the impact of the planned new housing development off Bromfield Road where it is feared that hard-standing will increase the risk of flooding downstream.

A Flood Action Plan is in the process of being prepared to look at other ways in which people can protect against flooding.

It is being prepared by local people who were especially badly affected by the flooding nearly a decade ago.

The flooding in Ludlow came just a week after fisheries officers from the Environment Agency were in the town creating an artificial pass for salmon and were struggling to return to their spawning grounds because of low river levels.

Flooding also affected other parts of south Shropshire. Fire fighters were called to Affcot near Church Stretton to help with the salvage of property from a flooded house.

Two people were also rescued from a vehicle that got stuck in flood water at Hungerford.