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The distinctive wail of a flood siren may soon be a thing of the past in some parts of Norfolk.

The Environment Agency and the police say they don't need them to warn people of impending floods and want to rely on phone messages and text alerts instead.

But a series of meetings in coastal towns and villages has shown that local people don't agree. They've made it clear that the sirens are useful and should be kept and possibly upgraded.

Useful warning

Sybil Melton, who chairs Snettisham Parish Council near King's Lynn, says she's in favour of keeping the system.

"I think you need the other measures as well," she said. "You need the knocking on doors and other things, but sirens are something people really take notice of. If you hear a siren, you run!"

Mayor of Hunstanton Richard Bird is also in favour of the siren system.

"The average age of our people in Hunstanton is 68 – and they remember what a siren is for. People know it as a warning, and treat it with the respect that it's due," he said.

People who went to the Snettisham meeting were told by emergency planning officers that the siren system was old and unreliable, and often failed in tests.

The problem was not only the age of the sirens themselves, which date back to WW2, but the computer system which drives them.

But people felt the experts had not taken into account the way a siren could alert those who were not local, or who didn't answer phones or a knock at the door late at night.

Unprepared for floods

Their role was highlighted at Walcott in November, when a request to sound the sirens was ignored, leaving many people unprepared for the floods which swept into their homes.

Stormy weather at Wells-next-the-Sea

At Wells there has been a vigorous campaign to keep sirens for the town. More than 2,000 people have signed a petition for them to be retained. Many people want them upgraded and modernised.

The chairman of Norfolk's fire and public protection panel, Stephen Dorrington, says all the meetings held so far have been strongly in favour of keeping the sirens.

Councillors were also united in wanting to keep the system, against the professional views of their officers.

The panel will discuss the issue in March and make its recommendations to the Norfolk Resilience Forum, a multi-agency group which includes the police and the Environment Agency, which are responsible for issuing flood warnings.

They are expected to make a decision about which of the 57 Norfolk sirens should stay and which should be scrapped in the summer.