EMERGENCY plans to safeguard Stroud against floods and other crises will not be prepared by the town council.

The district council claimed the scheme would help other authorities with local knowledge and support in an emergency, and would also boost community resilience.

But town councillors said that although they were always willing to help informally, the district council was the best body to deal with major incidents.

Speaking at a full council meeting on Monday, November 10, deputy mayor Andy Read said: "Given their staff and resources, they have everything in place to deal with this sort of thing.

"I would have thought that the best point of contact is the actual district councillors.

"They have got local knowledge and they’re tied-in with the district already, so they know what could be done.

"We haven’t the resources to get involved with that level of action but we’re willing to help as local people."

Cllr Haydn Sutton added that having more than one authority in control could cause confusion.

But Cllr Linda Townley, who is also an independent district councillor for Uplands, said the council could appoint a contact for each of the six wards.

"When there were parts of the town that didn’t have water, it was people like the local councillors who knew where the vulnerable people were and where the best places were to site bowsers," she said.