FOUR members of a voluntary river rescue group have been suspended over allegations of bullying.

The suspensions were handed out to the members of Upton's Mercia Inshore Search and Rescue, which carries out a vital service in flooding.

In the 2007 floods it helped rescue 67 people.

The men were suspended due to allegations of bullying another member of the flood rescue team in a WhatsApp group. The allegation centres on the use of the word "rodent".

Now Paul Gray, one of the suspended members, says Upton is at risk as a result of the decision.

However, MISAR says it can still carry out operations.

Mr Gray said: "MISAR is essentially impotent now. Out of the four of us, two are Swift Water Flood Rescue Boat Operators (SWFRBOs).

"All of the SWFRBOs have been suspended and now they haven't got the skills to operate safely in fast moving water.

"If anything was going to kick off and we were needed it puts lots of pressure on Upton.

"We just want to get back on the crew. All we want to do is help people and if something was to happen we would put politics to one side and get in a boat."

Mr Gray, who became the interim station manager in June, said he was worried about the suspensions due to recent flooding.

He said three of the seven crew members had been suspended and a fourth member did not frequently train.

He said: "We got an email on October 31 from Cllr Peter Webb along the lines of our membership has been removed due to allegations."

"We haven't had any letters or anything. All we had was the email from Peter.

"I phoned Peter up when I received it. He was going on about the things that were said on WhatsApp."

Another one of the suspended crew members said: "Someone mentioned the word ‘rodent’. The guy in question thought they were referring to him.

"He went to the trustees saying he was going to take them to court. There’s effectively no operational team there now."

MISAR chairman David Walker said: "There has been some unreasonable behaviour by certain members of the crew and in this day and age that's not acceptable.

"You can't have people who think they are God. People have got too big for their boots.

"We are anxious to get this resolved. Among the four [suspended] are some very good people.

Mr Walker said certain egos had been upset by the suspensions and rejected the claim the service was now 'impotent'.

The chairman added an operational crew of four team members was out on the river in Upton on November 27.

He says the suspension of the SWFRBOs had not created a risk, due to conditions locally.

Peter Webb, said he had resigned as a trustee of MISAR two weeks ago.

He said: "The e-mail was not from me, it was sent from my computer on behalf of the trustees."

He added he resigned as a trustee about two weeks ago because he did not know what was going on in the organisation.

MISAR was set up in 2005 as a volunteer service.