An emergency helpline is now up and running to help cope with more flood misery in and around Braintree.

The telephone hotline has been launched by Braintree Council as it prepares for the worst after further downpours last night (Monday) and with more expected later in the week.

Many roads and some homes around the Braintree area have been affected by rising water levels.

Localised flooding has already hit parts of Witham and Braintree, Great Notley, Kelvedon and small villages across the district .

And with worse weather on the way the council decided to set up the switchboard after a meeting yesterday (Monday) morning.

"Only a handful of people seem to be badly affected by flooding but the rate of calls seems to be steady," a Braintree Council spokesman said.

"A lot of people have realised it could turn out to be worse over the next couple of days."

He added: "We are setting up up an emergency switchboard so we can deal with the amount of calls we are expecting.

"We've decided to set up a small team to take calls initially and route them to the relevant departments."

Three or four staff - plucked from other council departments - will man the helpline which will problems.

Council staff were today out and about distributing 2,000 sandbags to homeowners to deal with the flood threat. The bags will be distributed to the worst-hit areas in the district as and when needed.

The council spokesman said: "We are just looking through until the end of this week and the situation will be reviewed then.

If you have a flood related problem you can contact the Braintree Council floodline on 01376 552525.

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