Work starts to prevent town centre from being flooded (From Witney Gazette)

Work starts to prevent town centre from being flooded

2:46pm Tuesday 1st July 2008 in Witney By Matt Wilkinson

WORK has begun last week to prevent Witney town centre from being flooded in the future.

Shops in Bridge Street have suffered from floods at least twice in the last year after the River Windrush burst its banks.

Oxfordshire County Council and the Environment Agency has begun draining a bank of silt upstream on the river.

Geoff Bell, area flood risk manager from the Environment Agency, said: "We've listened to the concerns of residents along the River Windrush in Witney about this spot, and we are very pleased to be working with the council to alleviate this risk."

The first phase was completed last week, and the silt will be removed from the downstream section this month.

Gordon Hunt, drainage engineer with Oxfordshire County Council, said. "This is a new approach for cleaning silt.

"It is more complicated from a health and safety perspective because we have men actually working in the river, but as long as it's done carefully and in clear conditions, there should be no problem."

The £20,000 bill will be shared between Oxfordshire County Council and The Environment Agency.

Last month, Max Sullivan-Webb, 17, died in flood water at Eastfield Road, Witney, and an Environment Agency study into how to prevent further flooding in the area is under way. Last week's work would have no impact on flooding in Eastfield Road, an agency spokesman said.