The construction of new flood walls for Marlow is expected to complete this summer after bulldozers moved into the town a year-and-a-half ago.

The £8.5 million flood relief scheme in Gossmore Lane and Pound Lane was put in place to shield Marlovians from a repeat of the devastating floods in 2014 and started taking shape more than five years after it was approved.

Two concrete and brick flood walls between 1.5 metres and two metres in height are being created – one adjacent to the towpath between Gossmore recreation ground and Pergola field and the other on the highway ditch at the back of Firview Close.

Wycombe district and Bucks county councillor for Marlow, Alex Collingwood, confirmed that the work should be completed by the end of June – a full one-and-a-half years after it was originally expected to be completed, in December 2016. 

At the time, David Bedlington, area flood and coastal risk manager for the Environment Agency, said one flood wall would replace timber fences with a “permanent and impermeable” wall along the boundaries of two homes, while the second one would prevent the River Thames from backing up along the highway ditch near the A404.