A NEW sign to warn residents of a North-East town about rising river levels is in the pipeline.

Councillors in Yarm have heard an LED display is being lined up at the bottom of Silver Street, near Yarm Wharf.

Cllr Peter Monck told colleagues on Tuesday night how the new electric sign would show “flood warning information” and give motorists a steer about when the flood gates would be shut.

The former mayor said: “It’s gone to planning to get approval. Anyone driving down there will see this sign and it will advise them either to park up or not to. The issue before when the car park was closed was people were locked in – and one or two were creating mayhem about smashing the gates open.”

The town, which is surrounded by the river on three sides, had 30 flood gates replaced in 2017 by the Environment Agency (EA).Cllr Monk told the meeting that tests to the gates had been given the thumbs-up.

He also revealed the Environment Agency was seeking flood wardens to help a new flood warning scheme in the town and complement an online alert system.

Cllr Monck said: “The idea of this is that as well as the normal flood warning, you can actually register for a flood gate closure warning – so it will tell you in advance if the flood gate is going to be closed and what time it is going to be closed.

“That gives wardens an opportunity to go around and knock on doors if the floodgates are shut.

“The real reason for doing it is the people who often don’t have the flood warning alert are elderly and vulnerable people – we can knock on their door and tell them what’s happening.

Floods in 1995 brought 18 inches of water to Yarm High Street.

The wharf refurbishment launched two years ago and was the largest flood defence scheme brought to the town in 25 years.

Councillors also suggested a siren when the gates were about to close could help those parked in the High Street.

Cllr Monck said the Environment Agency was “looking into” bringing in an audible warning.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “The flood gates at Yarm are installed and have been water tested.

“The 30 new gates reduce the risk of flooding to 500 properties in the town.

“We are currently in a handover period during which the contractor will operate the gates and the Environment Agency will check closure. There is an operational message now available for people to register for, in order to receive advance warning of gate closure at Yarm. We do use sirens occasionally in some locations generally for rivers that rise very quickly in response to rainfall.

“The Tees at Yarm does not rise rapidly therefore we are not considering sirens for Yarm."