HUNDREDS of Oxfordshire residents face higher insurance bills after their homes were included on official flood maps.

Updated maps published by the Environment Agency yesterday put an extra 360 Witney properties at risk of flooding for the first time.

Standlake, Northmoor, Crawley and Swinford are also affected. Oxford will be re-examined in future map revisions.

Witney’s Moorland Road – including Marriotts Walk shopping centre, Witney Community Hospital and Witney Police Station – is at risk for the first time.

Welch Way is also included while Bridge Street and Witney Meadows, which were in previous maps, are now classed as at greater risk. Some 140 homes are at higher risk.

Tina Light, 46, of Moorland Road, said: “We do have house insurance, which we are obviously able to claim against if anything was to happen, but that could rise with this.”

Mrs Light, who lives in a mid-terrace house, said: “My husband works but I don’t because I’ve just had a baby, so with only one income and bills going up, it is worrying.”

Neighbour Bob Haley, 72, said: “It obviously makes you think but, frankly, I’ve lived in Witney for 72 years and I’ve never known this area to flood.

“But it is a concern because it could push our housing insurance up.”

Gary Hooper, branch manager of Witney A-Plan Insurance in Langdale Gate, said: “If you’re not in one of these areas there is a huge market. People want your business and you’ve got options.

“But if you’re in a floodplain the number of companies that will cover you will reduce and you might find that you have to accept a higher quote.”

Health bosses at NHS Oxfordshire said it had “robust emergency evacuation plans” for Witney Community Hospital.

But there was good news for some town residents. Flooding risk for 200 homes has reduced and 270 have been removed from the map.

The Environment Agency said better computer technology and new flood defences had altered the maps. The 2007 floods had also been considered, it said.

Area flood risk manager Barry Russell said: “While we can’t control the likelihood or frequency of extreme weather events, we can help people to be better prepared.”

  • You can see the new maps from tomorrow by logging on to environment-agency.gov.uk