Ironbridge shops stay open thanks to flood defences - but footfall down

It's after Storm Darragh caused river levels to rise

Author: Alice Smith / Sam HallPublished 9th Dec 2024

Despite disruption caused by Storm Darragh, shops on the main street of a Shropshire town have been able to stay open thanks to flood defences - although some businesses say footfall has suffered.

The White Hart in Ironbridge is one of them.

Stephen works there and tells us despite being essential, the flood barriers put some people off visiting the town.

"We've managed to stay open but customers are way down. Nobody really wants to come and stare at water and big blue barriers, unfortunately.

"You can still get to us but we are the end of the footpath so people can't get all the way down the street."

He's hoping the barriers will be lifted in the coming days as river levels go down so footfall can return to normal - particularly in the run up to Christmas.

The fourth named storm of the season brought strong gusts to many parts of the country over the weekend, with tens of thousands of people still without electricity on Monday morning.

Winds will gradually ease with noticeably less rainfall by Wednesday but temperatures will stay in the single figures, the Met Office has said.

More than 120 flood alerts and 35 flood warnings were in place on Monday morning, with warnings that water levels on the River Severn will remain high until Wednesday.

The Energy Networks Association said 66,000 customers were without power at 8am on Monday morning.

It added that the weather conditions meant it was "too dangerous for engineers to safely work" in some locations over the weekend.

Two men were killed by falling trees hitting their vehicles on Saturday.

Met Office meteorologist Liam Eslick said: "Storm Darragh has now moved its way off towards the south east, so things are going to start to settle down over the next couple of days.

"But it is still going to remain quite blustery, especially for south and south east of England, for the next day at least."

Any remaining winds will die down by Tuesday.

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