Calder Valley flood warning sirens to be tested

Eight flood warning sirens will be tested on Thursday in the upper Calder Valley.

Calderdale Council said the test was designed to help communities be prepared for any risk of flooding during the winter.

The sirens in Walsden, Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd will sound between 11:00 BST and 11:15.

Each siren will sound for two minutes and the council said residents did not need to take any action.

Vehicles with loudhailers will be used to alert people ahead of the sirens being sounded.

The Calder Valley was hit by severe flooding in 2015 and 2020.

Graham Lindsey, flood resilience team leader at the Environment Agency (EA) said the tests were part of their work to ensure they were fully prepared to take action.

"It is important that we test the audibility of sirens to check that they can be heard as widely as possible," he said.

"The sirens provide a useful way of quickly alerting the communities at risk in the upper valley, an area where we know that flooding can occur extremely quickly."

The EA said if poor weather was forecast on Thursday then the tests would be postponed until 12 October.

There are four sirens in Todmorden at the fire station, the high school, Morrisons and Weir Minerals

There is also a siren at Walsden, two in Hebden Bridge, one in Mytholmroyd and a community siren in Sowerby Bridge.

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].