All but senior staff at the Oxford Mail have been told to stay away from work today as flood waters surrounding its Osney Mead offices continues to rise.

Water has risen significantly overnight and many houses across the river from the Mail’s building have been evacuated, with the Environment Agency predicting that water levels will rise further.

The Mail has been on flood alert for the last three days, during which time deadlines have been brought forward by around six hours and contingency plans put in place.

So far the paper has continued to be printed at a press on-site, but it is thought that tomorrow’s edition will be printed at Newsquest’s South Wales press.

Production also looks set to be moved to Swindon.

Group news editor Jason Collie told holdthefrontpage that the road to the office had been cut off by water.

He said: “We have told staff that unless they need to be here not to come in today.

“We have reporters either on the scene or working from home or from district offices.”

He said meeting significantly earlier deadlines had been “a challenge” but that everybody had been “absolutely amazing” and completed the task in a professional and highly organised manner.

He said: “There has not been one person who who has been worried about having to go through a bit of water – they want to produce a good newspaper.”

The building is not thought to be in immediate danger of flooding but if this did happen the electric would need to be switched off for safety reasons as the electric run through the floor.

Jason said: “We’ve not only had the challenge of putting together a printed product, we have also thrown huge resources into our website.

“We see this as a key time to try and compete with organisations like the BBC and so far I think we have done a very good job.”