The leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council has thanked the emergency service's for their response to Friday's tidal surge.

The borough council was one of a number of organisations that worked together to ensure the public's safety amid severe flood warnings, and leader Graham Plant has paid tribute to the efforts of those involved.

He said: 'No flood warnings of this nature issued by the Environment Agency should ever be taken lightly, and the emergency response plans that Great Yarmouth Borough Council, our partners and other local community resilience groups have in place were extremely well executed. My thanks go to them all.

'Living as we do in a coastal borough with rivers also running through, flood warnings are frequently on our radar and must always be taken seriously, so we can ensure that our residents are safe.

'I am proud that we have such a dedicated team of people across the borough as well as people we can call on from further away, who are all ready to swing into action when situations like this arise, to do all they can to help protect those who live and work here.'

On Friday, the council supplied thousands of sandbags for people to protect their homes with, and have now set up three points for people to return them to.

These are:

• North River Road/Runham Road, Runham Vauxhall,

• Brush Quay, Gorleston.

• South Quay, opposite Friars Lane, Great Yarmouth.

Residents are asked not to put sandbags in wheelie bins or to leave their sandbags unattended; the bags can deteriorate and if sand escapes, this can lead to blocked drains.

Engineers and technicians from the Environment Agency continue to carry out inspections on tidal defences, but despite some seepage this does not appear to have impacted any homes in Great Yarmouth or Gorleston.