Clean-up continues for areas hit by Storm Bert

People in Bradford-on-Avon have been clearing out shops and homes following the flooding

Residents and businesses are continuing the clean-up operation after flooding caused by Storm Bert.

Heavy rain and high winds caused widespread disruption across Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, with damage to homes, shops and roads.

People were forced to leave their houses in Yate and the town centres of Bradford-on-Avon and Chippenham were brought to a standstill with roads and schools also closed on Monday.

Bradford-on-Avon's mayor Jack Vittles said that some people are still stuck on the top floors of their building, adding: "We’ve seen record flood waters, businesses ruined, homes ruined, we need more help here."

"It’s been devastating for this town. It happened to us early this year in January, it’s happened yesterday," said Mr Vittles.

Areas already saturated from the weekend are bracing themselves as more heavy rain is forecasted and flooding from 19:00 GMT on Tuesday.

The floods minister Emma Hardy has been in Chippenham

Minister for Flooding Emma Hardy has been visiting businesses hit hard by the floods in Chippenham.

"I know how devastating flooding can be, how the clear up can take such a long time, how it impacts on people’s mental health and how businesses find it difficult to reopen," she said.

"What I would urge people who had been flooded is have a look at the scheme you’ve got, have a look whether it includes something called ‘Build Back Better’ because you could be entitled to an additional £10,000 to improve the flood resilience of your property."

G Hatto Barbershop was one of many shops affected

Gary Hatto, from G Hatto Barbershop in the town, is working hard to dry out his business so it can open as quickly as possible.

"Everything that was three of four foot up, including the sofas, was floating from front to back like a scene from the Titanic," he said.

"We’ll get everything out, we’ll hose it to death and then we’ll work backwards and see what’s salvageable and take it from there."

Pet shop owner Becky Lyons says water was "up to the door" in her shop

Becky Lyons opened Pawesome Pets in the town 13 months ago. Despite her business flooding, she has reopened to customers today.

"We managed to get most of the water out yesterday. We’ve lost a fair amount of stock but it could have been a hell of a lot worse," she said.

"The first job now is to go through the stock and see how much I’ve lost. Most of it today is going to be cleaning up the mud.

"My tills down because we have no electricity but we still have stock, so I’m going to use my portable card machine and we’ll just wing it."

The water level of the River Avon in Bradford-on-Avon, was the highest ever recorded, surpassing that of December 2013.

Business owner Christine Giles said she managed to remove about 40,000 litres of water from her premises, with the help of about 100 volunteers.

"We managed to keep the water level to about two or three inches but if we hadn’t of done that, I have no idea how high it would have been," she told BBC Points West.

The river in Bradford-on-Avon remains high

Lydney in Gloucestershire, and Frampton Cotterell in South Gloucestershire were also among the worst hit areas in the West.

Mayor of Lydney, Tash Saunders, told BBC Radio Gloucestershire that Monday was a “a day of tears everywhere we went”.

“The devastation was much worse than we expected as the water receded. By the time I got into town the destruction was then more evident,” she said.

“We do still have houses underwater and the big clean-up mission continues."

Alan Lancaster, who lives in Frampton Cotterell where the River Frome also spilled over, told BBC Radio Bristol earlier: “The river is still very high. It’s still higher directly outside my house than it has been in the last 20 years."

In Bristol, The Swan Pub in Swineford is still submerged in water.

"We got in this morning to find some of our pint glasses floating along and the levels getting quite high up to our steps," assistant manager Sammy Stride told BBC Radio Bristol this afternoon.

"We were almost knee deep wading through in our wellies this morning."

Lydney Town Football Club's pitch was completely submerged

Travel disruption also continues for motorists, with a number of roads closed due to the flooding.

Meanwhile, Great Western Railway said services between London Paddington and Swansea via Bristol Parkway were cancelled due to heavy flooding.

Customers are being asked to complete their journeys before 19:00 GMT this evening because "water levels are so high," said Paul Gentleman, head of external communications at GWR.

"There is the danger that we could see more line closures and some cancellations, we’re not really going to know until we get that rain appearing this evening," he told BBC Radio Wiltshire.

A number of flood warnings are in place, as watercourses continue to respond to the amount of water running off into them.

"Overnight, the number of flood warnings has actually increased in Wiltshire from 19 to 21," said Adrian Hampton, head of highways operations at Wiltshire Council.

"So whilst we are seeing an improving picture across the county, we still have a number of flooded areas particularly in the north," he said.

Residents in Chippenham say the flooding there is some of the worst they've seen since the 1960s

Ian Withers, from the Environment Agency, said low lying areas will be at risk.

"There are flood warnings in place for lower Avon, from Twerton down through Keynsham, Saltford into Bristol. And from the River Frome from Knibbley down to Stapleton," he said.

"We absolutely need to recognise that climate change is happening and our rainfall is becoming worst, and we need to act individually to protect ourselves.

"Flood warning is a serious thing to consider. It means be prepared, act now.

"It’s not to be regarded as a trivial issue, it’s a real possibility that when we issue a flood warning there may well be flooding into your property or business."

Many trees were blown onto roads across Somerset

In Somerset, by Monday evening about 300 incidents had been dealt with and crews were continuing to work to clear roads of trees and flood water.

More than 200 trees were removed after they had been blown across roads by the high winds, including on the B3227 in Norton Fitzwarren and the A30 Hendford Hill in Yeovil.

In total 644 reports of incidents were made across the county.