Damage caused by the Easter flash floods that left 350 people homeless in Oxfordshire was made even worse because the authorities bungled the rescue.

In a shock report out today, the Environment Agency is accused of giving most victims no prior warning of the flood wave sweeping towards their homes.

And the report calls for urgent action to avoid a repeat of the chaos.

According to the independent report, misunderstandings between the agency and emergency services resulted in a "poor overall performance" after the River Cherwell burst its banks and new measures require "urgent attention".

Archie Robertson, the agency's director of operations, said: "The agency regrets sincerely the impact of the floods, and is particularly saddened by the loss of life, the damage to property, disruption to livelihoods and the personal trauma that has been experienced by many.

"The events of Easter 1998 placed strenuous demands on the agency. Given the scale and suddenness of flooding, we believe we did many things well.

"But, faced with such extreme conditions, we acknowledge that our actions did not always meet our own standards or satisfy the public and others.

"Our systems and procedures were severely tested, particularly in flood warning communication - a role only recently inherited. We have been working to improve what were very poor quality arrangements, progressively and within limited budgets." But he added: "No new resources are available for this work, so these and other initiatives will have to be undertaken at the expense of other, lower priority work."

The independent review team led by chairman Peter Bye found that the peak of the flood wave moving down the Cherwell from north of Banbury passed through Kidlington - but most houses at risk were given no direct warning.

The report said: "Most people affected received no alert and were surprised by and unprepared for the flooding. The deficiency in the scope of the agency's warning arrangements is explained by its lack of knowledge about previous flooding.

"Flood plains extents of the Kidlington reach of the Cherwell have not been investigated prior to Easter by detailed hydrological and hydraulic studies."

The report also found that the Thames region of the agency had no automatic voice messaging system to warn people at risk and other organisations.

The Environment Agency has promised to meet residents of Kidlington and Gosford in the next month to discuss a new flood warning system.

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