SIRENS once used to warn residents of impending flood risks will be donated to three museums.

Campaigners’ hopes of re-installing nine flood sirens in Canvey and one in Benfleet were dashed last month, after Essex County Council announced they would never be put back into use.

They have made way for a new digital service, where residents across the borough will be sent alerts by text, e-mail, phone and radio to warn them of potential danger.

However, the sirens have now been saved from the scrapheap and are set to be donated to the Dutch Cottage Museum, Bay Museum and St Katherine’s Heritage Centre, in Canvey, to go on public display as part of the Island’s heritage.

Volunteers at the three museums will take the sirens round to schools and teach children about why they were used.

Ray Howard, Canvey county councillor who spearheaded a campaign to save the sirens, said: “The sirens are an important part of Canvey’s history and long may they remain so.

“It will be good to be able to preserve them and for local children to know how, before modern technology, they were used and operated.

“I and colleagues from all political parties have been able to keep them in operation, since the Government first decided in 1992 they were not part of Home Office warnings.

“I am very disappointed they will no longer be used, especially as after that terrible devastation in Japan, the last thing you heard was the sirens.

“Even in a country as technologically advanced as Japan, sirens are still used. However, this is the way things go sometimes.”

Mr Howard took a special interest in flood protection after his family home, in North Avenue, Canvey, was flooded during the 1953 North Sea flood disaster, which killed 59 people on the island.

The new Floodline Warning Direct Service will save the council around £36,000 a year in running costs. A total of 36 sirens have been removed from operation across the county.