Agencies fight to turn the tide in West Berkshire

Fire crews from Wales, Cheshire and West Yorkshire converged on Shaw with pumps to shift water from the cemetery end of Cromwell Road, Wellington Close and into Kiln Road.
These pictures, sent to NewburyToday reporter John Herring by Ben Wood, show the relief operations taking place in Shaw this afternoon.
Meanwhile, 2,207 homes in the Newbury area remain without power this afternoon, including properties in Basildon, Chieveley, Inkpen and East Ilsley.
In East Ilsley the power has been off since 6.30am and water is starting to seep into some cellars in the village.
Sarah Spink contacted Newbury Today to say that flooded homes could not pump out water and there was no heating because of the power cuts and there is no gas supply to the village.
Newbury MP Richard Benyon, who has been out visiting flooded areas today, said that lessons had been learned since the flash floods of 2007 and praised peoples sense of community spirit.
He said: "There has been a better and faster moving of flood assets. We have West Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and other fire services and a whole battalion in the west of my constituency and that seems to be working well. My only worry moving forward is ground water in Newbury and a few other places and there's a lot of monitoring going on to see how serious that could get.
"People are so full of community spirit. It's very impressive and people's homes have been saved because people have been up all night helping each other."
Mr Benyon added that while he thought SSE were doing a good job to restore power but said he was frustrated that people had to wait so long to find out when their supply would be back.
SSE is offering people affected by the power cuts hotdogs and hot drinks at the village hall in Chieveley, RG20 8RJ.
West Berkshire Council has said that in addition to flooding in Eastbury, Great Shefford, Compton, Burghfield and Purley and Shaw, the villages of East Illsley, Standford Dingley and Boxford are now affected with the authorities and army in there to support.
To report flooding email

or phone 01635 42400 daytime, 42161 evenings.
The yellow warning for rain is still in place until 8pm this evening but a yellow warning for ice has been issued between 8pm today (Saturday) and 10am tomorrow.
The Met Office says that people should be aware of slippery surfaces as water running over roads could turn to ice as temperatures are set to plummet to -2 degree Centigrade .