09/02/2014 BBC London News

concern. It is causing high waves, damaging I wi

Welcome to BBC London News. 15 severe flood warnings have been

issued along the River Thames in Berkshire and Surrey, meaning there

is a danger to life from flooding. The warnings were issued this

afternoon and are concentrated in an area close to the river between

Datchet and Shepperton Green. Gareth Furby reports. This was by the River

Thames in Walton this afternoon Residents hearsay river levels have

risen quickly. The last couple of days, it has been a couple of feet

every night. We are worried. Yesterday, that was not covered So

you have got another good three inches of water. They are now trying

to protect homes here, hoping still that they will not have to leave.

Are you staying put? We are, yes. To be with our homes and our houses.

But isn't it dangerous? Not at the moment. What people here are hoping

is that the river will soon stop rising. But at the moment, the there

is now no denying, the River Thames is presenting new dangers and

flooding new areas. This was a streak in Thames Ditton. The water

came up quickly, and just as suddenly, sandbags were in demand. I

got a phone call from a friend who said, somebody is stealing your

sandbags. It turns out they just thought the council put them there

to be taken. So I put notes on them. Residents here's all the levels

continuing to rise, but it could have been worse. With such a swollen

river, high tides can now reach this far upstream, and today, the Thames

Barrier was closing to stop that. Like any asset, the Thames Barrier

is critical to protecting the areas upstream. We will use it as much as

we can. At Thames Ditton Island many locals say they will not be

leaving, even if the water gets deeper. We were here in 2003, and we

will stay put this time as well The Environment Agency has now issued a

series of severe flood warnings the highest level. They are focusing on

seven locations from Datchet to Shepperton. The level of the river

is rising, and the floods are spreading. Our reporter Tarah Welsh

joins us now. How worried should affected communities be by these

warnings? Well, this is the most serious type of warning you can

get. It means there is potential risk to life. This is the first time

severe warnings have been in place along the Thames so far this winter.

We know how bad it has already been. To put it into context, there 1

severe warnings in the south`east, and in the south`west, there are

only two, where there has been all that awful weather. That is because

the levels are rising. We think they could be in place for the next few

days, potentially, more to come Talks aimed at averting another

48`hour Tube strike will resume tomorrow. The unions and London

Underground will be at the conciliation service ACAS in an

attempt to resolve the dispute over plans to close all the ticket

offices. I am sorry about your inconvenience

this morning, you have just got to get through it, that is all. The

misery from earlier in the week could be repeated next week if the

mayor and the RMT cannot agree over the closure of ticket offices. DFL

plans to scrap them all, but the unions say that would not only put

workers out of a job, but it would also put passengers at risk. They do

not just sit behind and sell tickets, these people play a vital

role. If London Underground is going to be open on a Friday night and sat

on a night with more and more people using it, surely the wrong thing to

do is to get rid of these people just they should be there to

supplement the extra people that will be using the London

Underground. It is a fact disputed by the head of London Underground.

It says, thanks to the likes of the Oyster card, less than 3% of Tube

journeys involve a trip to the ticket office. But that still leaves

100,000 journeys every day which do. The mayor has come under pressure

for not doing more to prevent the strike action this week. If you

think back to industrial relations in the 1970s, when we had this thing

of politicians supplanting their managers, inviting the unions in

full beer and Sam Wood years, it was a disaster. You have really got to

leave it to your people `` beer and sandwiches `` to DFL. If the talks

break down tomorrow, the strike will start on Tuesday night. And more

rain is forecast for the rest of the week. With the latest, here's

Georgina Burnett. We have been hearing about those severe weather

warnings. So, tonight, we have just got some occasional showers, with

the wind easing, the bridges down to or five. Tomorrow morning, a lot of

heavy showers around. `` temperatures. Tomorrow, much less

wind. The Met Office has some warnings for rain between Tuesday

and Thursday. We will keep you up`to`date on those. But I am afraid

it is a wet and windy week ahead once more.

That's it for now, we're back in the late news.

Good evening. We have a significant number of severe warnings out. Most

of them have been issued on the River Thames today. Now, of course,

with more rain due this week, that