Joyce Park from Kidds Transport on Canton Road said several firms in the area were also deluged overnight, following prolonged spells of heavy rain across North West England.

Mrs Park, who is also a circuit steward in the Methodist Church, told Premier believers especially ought to pray “for people whose homes have been affected; at least we can come home to a dry home – they haven’t got that.”

More than 70 people needed to be rescued in north Lancashire overnight, including 27 in the village of Galgate who later took shelter in local pubs.

Lancashire Constabulary said more than 500 flood-related calls were received by the emergency services, Environment Agency and Lancaster City Council.

Expecting an imminent visit from her insurers, Mrs Park told Premier: “Staff are in with wellingtons on and clearing up, keeping the wagons moving.”

The businesswoman, who said her business was “devastated” by flooding to hit the area in 2015, also questioned whether the recent flooding would have been so severe, had drains and the nearby River Condor been better maintained.

She said: “We need people in authority to start taking notice.”

In response, Lancashire City Council told Premier: “We carried out an investigation only last month into the drainage system on Caton Road and found no underlying problems.

“Flooding in this area…

Andrew Soper, 74, allegedly molested 10 pupils during his time as headmaster and senior priest at fee-paying St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London in the 1970s and 80s.

Prosecutor Gillian Etherton QC quizzed the defendant on the “extraordinary” similarities between some of the alleged victims’ stories.

They claimed Soper “searched them for a book under the ruse of patting to touch their bottom” and offered three strokes of the cane instead of six “severe lashes” if they took their trousers and pants down.

The defendant accepted he had checked boys for “padding” and had changed his account to police on “calmer recollection” of events of some 30 years ago.

But he denied bargaining over the cane, saying: “I never gave that sort of an option because I would never give a boy six strokes of the cane, that’s far too much.

“I normally gave two or three.”

He told jurors incidents had been interpreted in a “sexual way” against a “tsunami of media attention as I am named fairly frequently”.

He cited a “backdrop of heavy media attention for the last 10 years” including a blog and “victim” discussion group, documentaries on Channel 4, Channel 5, Panorama, and news articles naming him and the school.

He said: “Against all that you have then got money, of course, which is a great incentive and the more elaborate the story, the more money you get.”

He went on: “I think, if I’m right, that seven out of 10 complainants left St Benedict’s before they completed their…

During an interview on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, to promote her new Christmas album, the pop star said the words for “Christmas Eve” came so effortlessly while she was jogging, she was worried that she had unknowingly stolen them.

She said: “I was running and I thought, ‘Ooh maybe I’ll try singing something, maybe something will come.

“And the whole chorus to this song Christmas Eve came, it was like a prayer.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to run back!’

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXPLkPQaZxI]

Then she added: “I’m like, ‘Did I steal this?

“Is this from church because I feel like I know this song?’

“I was convinced that I stole it.

“I went back and I ended up finishing it.”

However, Stefani said her parents assured her that the song was completely new and was not from a song she heard during a church service.

Those who sign up at adventchallenge.org.uk will be sent three challenges each day and asked to pick one.

The charity said the challenges are simple, practical and Bible-based. It includes donating to your local foodbank, leaving a Christmas card out for the refuse collector, or just giving someone a smile.

This the fourth time the charity has held the challenge. Last year more than 100,000 challenges were accepted online.

Someone who participated last year said: “I hand delivered a Christmas card to a neighbour two-doors down.

“I have lived in my house for 15 years and have barely spoken to them. I had a card straight back. We now talk.”

The daily Bible verses sent with the challenges follow the journey Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem where Jesus was born.

Another person said: “I loved it… being able to think about how you can do things for others so it became a habit.

“Some of the passages were also very challenging personally and one of them along with the challenge helped me be free from some feelings that I had been harbouring and it felt so good.”

Richard Franklin from Bible Society said: “We hope that as many people as possible will sign up to #AdventChallenge and do some really simple and practical things to spread some love, peace and joy this Christmas.”

To cater to families with children, each day there is a craft activity for building a nativity…

For the last 238 years, bells at St Peter’s Church in Sandwich have rung every 15 minutes between 11pm and 7am.

However, this summer a neighbour complained that the noise was disrupting their sleep.

Although a survey by a local action group called Save the Chimes found that only 15 per cent of people in the town were indifferent to or didn’t like the bells, Dover District Council served the church a night-time noise abatement order.

Almost 3,500 people have signed a petition to keep the bells ringing.

In a statement, Save the Chimes called the bells the “beating heart of Sandwich”.

It added: “The feeling by the vast majority of Sandwich residents is that this is the “thin end of the wedge” and if the ban is allowed to go through unchallenged, it will begin the erosion of centuries old traditions in our beautiful medieval town.”

Since the church has been made redundant, The Churches Conservation Trust looks after it.

According to the BBC, the organisation has 90 days to make the changes to silence the chimes.

A spokeswoman told the BBC: “We do not have the funds or resources to facilitate an appeal.

“We have told the local campaigning group if we receive a clear mandate from the community that they will fundraise to cover the costs, we will take it forward.”