by Alan Smith

Boat-owners say they were minutes away from disaster when a computer-glitch opened a river sluice gate in the middle of the night and emptied the Medway of gallons of its water.

The level of the river dropped five feet in 45 minutes after the automatically controlled gate in the middle of three sluices at Allington opened at around 12.30am on Friday, August 20.

Boats were soon tipping over at an alarming angle, hauled upright by their mooring ropes.

One boat owner, on board at the time, said: "We were literally minutes from disaster. The lock-keeper managed to turn the computer off and close the sluice manually just in time."

The river has since risen again to something approaching normal levels, but the Environment Agency has issued a warning to all boat owners to check any vessels moored along the River Medway, upstream of Allington Lock to East Farleigh.

Agency staff spent the rest of the night on the river checking the moorings of boats. Some boats suffered minor damage, but there were no reports of boats actually breaking free from their moorings.

Environment Agency area manager Andrew Pearce said: "We would urge all boat owners to come and check on their boats as soon as possible, because they will need to make sure that their boats are safe and not being damaged.

"We are currently patrolling the area, speaking to boat owners along the reach we see to let them know what’s happened, and will continue to do so.

"The sluice is now closed and river levels are beginning to rise once again, and we will continue to monitor the sluice that opened. We are also investigating what happened and why to make sure it doesn’t happen again."