Parts of Elmbridge’s rivers could be dredged as a leading conservation trust looks to implement a new flood task group to stave off rising waters.

It follows devastating flooding in the north of England after storms swept through the region.

Four flood alerts are now in place in the borough as rising river levels continue to lap roads and threaten to move towards properties.

A flood warning covering the River Mole and its tributaries, from Kinnersley Manor in Reigate to south Hersham, has been in place since the river burst its banks in Cobham a week ago.

Photos and videos taken at the time show riverside benches in Mill Road just peeking out from over the waters, with some nearby car parks partially underwater.

Further warnings have now extended from Chertsey Bourne over to the River Thames at Shepperton to Molesey, Thames Ditton Island and Hampton where huge swathes of the river boundaries are on alert in preparation for further flooding.

David Tipping, vice-chairman of the Cobham Conservation and Heritage Trust, said: “We feel there is a need for some dredging of the River Mole, there’s a lot of debris in parts of it which is immediately flowing into one place.

“An island has developed near the mill now and this isn’t helping with the flow.

“We will look into starting up a small group called Flood Watch made up of various organisations.

“We hope perhaps Surrey County Council, the Environment Agency (EA), the local Combe estate and the anglers’ club will join with us.

“But the first thing we've agreed to do is is to look into someone getting an expert to look at the river from Stoke D'Abernon to Cobham bridge to see whether work needs to be done to ensure the river has a better flow.

“Two years ago we had big problems in Cobham and we don’t want that to happen again.

“I was down by the mill and it was lapping the road, there’s very little change. The river did go down but we had very heavy rain again.

“Two years ago the mill was devastated because of the floods.”

Richard Ward, chairman of the Cobham Millers, agreed that the island in the river was causing problems.

He said: “It’s developed over the past five years and it’s getting bigger and bigger.

“When we’re operating the mill the water has to flow into the water mill and back into the river and the island is right where the outflow is.

“When we run the mill we do have to keep a careful eye on the level of the river and maybe adjust the weirs, with the permission of the EA, in order to increase the energy we can take for the mill.”

An EA spokesman said: “Recently there has been some heavy rainfall in the Cobham area.

“The Environment Agency has been monitoring the situation and operating the Cobham Mill and Lower Mole flood alleviation schemes, to reduce the risk of flooding to properties.

“We are not aware of any properties being affected by river flooding in the area and we are continuing to monitor river levels.”