BEWDLEY residents are to be quizzed for a university study into whether the ravages of flooding have affected their mental and physical health.

Middlesex University's Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC) intends to conduct the exercise for the Environment Agency and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs next spring.

It is intended to improve understanding of how flooding affects people's lives in the long term.

Sue Tapsell, a research fellow based at the university centre, said: "It's becoming more recognised how traumatic it is to be flooded.

"It is very disruptive and stressful and can cause problems within families, affecting relationships."

Interviews with victims of floods in other areas had shown "common mental disorders such as increased anxiety levels and depression appeared to be widespread", she explained.

Anecdotal evidence also suggested psychological impact on young children, which often showed up in the form of behavioural problems.

These included bed wetting, rain causing children to cry or become anxious and refusing to go back to flood-hit houses.

According to the previous research, the elderly and infirm could become so distressed that it could hasten their deaths.

Peter Barnett, who chairs Bewdley Residents' Flood Committee, said there were other implications of flood damage, rather than just environmental ones.

He said: "The psychological effect is one. It's very stressful."

As far as effects on children were concerned, he added: "Some kids are affected. Mine weren't: they treated it as a big adventure.

"But it does affect different people in different ways."

Another committee member, Gill Holland, said: "I think there's a move afoot in the EA and Defra and research organisations, like the FHRC, to push government into taking account of the social effect of flooding."

The Bewdley survey will cover all age groups.