:00:00. > 3:59:59concern. It is causing high waves, damaging I wi
:00:00. > :00:20.Welcome to BBC London News. 15 severe flood warnings have been
:00:21. > :00:27.issued along the River Thames in Berkshire and Surrey, meaning there
:00:28. > :00:30.is a danger to life from flooding. The warnings were issued this
:00:31. > :00:32.afternoon and are concentrated in an area close to the river between
:00:33. > :00:40.Datchet and Shepperton Green. Gareth Furby reports. This was by the River
:00:41. > :00:43.Thames in Walton this afternoon Residents hearsay river levels have
:00:44. > :00:47.risen quickly. The last couple of days, it has been a couple of feet
:00:48. > :00:52.every night. We are worried. Yesterday, that was not covered So
:00:53. > :00:56.you have got another good three inches of water. They are now trying
:00:57. > :01:04.to protect homes here, hoping still that they will not have to leave.
:01:05. > :01:09.Are you staying put? We are, yes. To be with our homes and our houses.
:01:10. > :01:14.But isn't it dangerous? Not at the moment. What people here are hoping
:01:15. > :01:23.is that the river will soon stop rising. But at the moment, the there
:01:24. > :01:30.is now no denying, the River Thames is presenting new dangers and
:01:31. > :01:35.flooding new areas. This was a streak in Thames Ditton. The water
:01:36. > :01:40.came up quickly, and just as suddenly, sandbags were in demand. I
:01:41. > :01:44.got a phone call from a friend who said, somebody is stealing your
:01:45. > :01:49.sandbags. It turns out they just thought the council put them there
:01:50. > :01:52.to be taken. So I put notes on them. Residents here's all the levels
:01:53. > :01:59.continuing to rise, but it could have been worse. With such a swollen
:02:00. > :02:05.river, high tides can now reach this far upstream, and today, the Thames
:02:06. > :02:09.Barrier was closing to stop that. Like any asset, the Thames Barrier
:02:10. > :02:14.is critical to protecting the areas upstream. We will use it as much as
:02:15. > :02:17.we can. At Thames Ditton Island many locals say they will not be
:02:18. > :02:24.leaving, even if the water gets deeper. We were here in 2003, and we
:02:25. > :02:27.will stay put this time as well The Environment Agency has now issued a
:02:28. > :02:32.series of severe flood warnings the highest level. They are focusing on
:02:33. > :02:38.seven locations from Datchet to Shepperton. The level of the river
:02:39. > :02:42.is rising, and the floods are spreading. Our reporter Tarah Welsh
:02:43. > :02:49.joins us now. How worried should affected communities be by these
:02:50. > :02:52.warnings? Well, this is the most serious type of warning you can
:02:53. > :02:57.get. It means there is potential risk to life. This is the first time
:02:58. > :03:02.severe warnings have been in place along the Thames so far this winter.
:03:03. > :03:07.We know how bad it has already been. To put it into context, there 1
:03:08. > :03:11.severe warnings in the south`east, and in the south`west, there are
:03:12. > :03:15.only two, where there has been all that awful weather. That is because
:03:16. > :03:16.the levels are rising. We think they could be in place for the next few
:03:17. > :03:22.days, potentially, more to come Talks aimed at averting another
:03:23. > :03:25.48`hour Tube strike will resume tomorrow. The unions and London
:03:26. > :03:28.Underground will be at the conciliation service ACAS in an
:03:29. > :03:29.attempt to resolve the dispute over plans to close all the ticket
:03:30. > :03:40.offices. I am sorry about your inconvenience
:03:41. > :03:45.this morning, you have just got to get through it, that is all. The
:03:46. > :03:48.misery from earlier in the week could be repeated next week if the
:03:49. > :03:53.mayor and the RMT cannot agree over the closure of ticket offices. DFL
:03:54. > :03:56.plans to scrap them all, but the unions say that would not only put
:03:57. > :04:01.workers out of a job, but it would also put passengers at risk. They do
:04:02. > :04:05.not just sit behind and sell tickets, these people play a vital
:04:06. > :04:09.role. If London Underground is going to be open on a Friday night and sat
:04:10. > :04:13.on a night with more and more people using it, surely the wrong thing to
:04:14. > :04:16.do is to get rid of these people just they should be there to
:04:17. > :04:19.supplement the extra people that will be using the London
:04:20. > :04:24.Underground. It is a fact disputed by the head of London Underground.
:04:25. > :04:29.It says, thanks to the likes of the Oyster card, less than 3% of Tube
:04:30. > :04:34.journeys involve a trip to the ticket office. But that still leaves
:04:35. > :04:37.100,000 journeys every day which do. The mayor has come under pressure
:04:38. > :04:41.for not doing more to prevent the strike action this week. If you
:04:42. > :04:46.think back to industrial relations in the 1970s, when we had this thing
:04:47. > :04:50.of politicians supplanting their managers, inviting the unions in
:04:51. > :04:56.full beer and Sam Wood years, it was a disaster. You have really got to
:04:57. > :05:08.leave it to your people `` beer and sandwiches `` to DFL. If the talks
:05:09. > :05:11.break down tomorrow, the strike will start on Tuesday night. And more
:05:12. > :05:18.rain is forecast for the rest of the week. With the latest, here's
:05:19. > :05:22.Georgina Burnett. We have been hearing about those severe weather
:05:23. > :05:27.warnings. So, tonight, we have just got some occasional showers, with
:05:28. > :05:32.the wind easing, the bridges down to or five. Tomorrow morning, a lot of
:05:33. > :05:41.heavy showers around. `` temperatures. Tomorrow, much less
:05:42. > :05:46.wind. The Met Office has some warnings for rain between Tuesday
:05:47. > :05:51.and Thursday. We will keep you up`to`date on those. But I am afraid
:05:52. > :05:54.it is a wet and windy week ahead once more.
:05:55. > :06:11.That's it for now, we're back in the late news.
:06:12. > :06:16.Good evening. We have a significant number of severe warnings out. Most
:06:17. > :06:21.of them have been issued on the River Thames today. Now, of course,
:06:22. > :06:22.with more rain due this week, that