PEOPLE living in a village hit by floods have branded a new warning siren a waste of time.

The siren has been installed by the Environment Agency to alert residents of Skinningrove when the water level in the beck is rising.

The east Cleveland village was hit by two huge floods in 2000, which resulted in many people having to be evacuated from their homes and taken to emergency rest centres in lifeboats.

Since then, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has built flood defence barriers and the siren, in Zetland Row, was intended to act as further protection.

But when it was tested for the first time last week, villagers described the noise as a "pathetic wail" which could not be heard by people indoors.

Jennifer Scott, 58, whose house on Beach Road was badly affected, said: "We were all waiting with bated breath for the siren and, quite honestly, if someone spoke to you, you just couldn't hear it.

"We were expecting something more like an air raid siren. It was just like a whine."

Ms Scott added: "We need something we can hear, something that will wake us up if we are asleep.

"I have never seen such devastation on people's faces as I saw in Skinningrove during the floods. We just want some peace of mind."

Another resident said: "The siren is a 100 per cent waste of time.

"The people in the houses that were flooded wouldn't have a chance of hearing it."

Councillor Steve Kay said: "The siren is supposed to warn villagers if Skinningrove is threatened with flooding again, so they can move to a place of safety. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a pathetic wail.

"I fear that, if the floods threatened a sleeping Skinningrove, with the siren going off at night, it would be next to useless."

An Environment Agency spokeswoman said the original plan was to have two sirens, but that had been rejected by Loftus Town Council.

"It also has to be noted that the siren will only be needed in the very worst case scenario if water rises above the flood defences," she said.