A multi-million pound scheme to protect around 300 properties in Marlow from flooding will go ahead after funding was found for the long-awaited project.

Despite Marlow’s £8 million Flood Alleviation Scheme not appearing in the Treasury’s £2.3 billion flood defence announcement yesterday, work is due to start as early as the New Year.

A funding gap for the long-mooted scheme – granted planning permission in 2010 – has finally been found after a pledge from the Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC).

Residents, councillors and MP Dominic Grieve have been lobbying government ministers to get the green light after Marlow was badly damaged in last winter’s terrible floods.

It will form part of the Government’s six-year funding programme for flood defence projects, and is a partnership project involving the Environment Agency, Buckinghamshire County Council, Wycombe District Council and Marlow Town Council.

Lesley Clarke, BCC Cabinet member for planning and the environment, said: “This is great news for Marlow residents, who suffered so badly in the severe weather last winter.

“Working with the Environment Agency, we want to move quickly on this and we’re expecting a project management team to take this forward in the New Year.”

The Environment Agency will manage the scheme, which will raise the standard of protection for 287 properties in Marlow through the installation of bunds and groundwater pumps.

After this year’s floods, Wycombe District Council leader Richard Scott, who represents Marlow, made a fresh call for the missing funding to be found.

MP Dominic Grieve pledged to close the funding gap - as much as £3m - by lobbying his colleagues and the Prime Minister. 

And sisters Wendy McEvoy and Sandra Jeffs launched a ‘Fight the Floods’ petition last month after their elderly parents were evacuated from their Pound Lane home in February.

Since last winter the Environment Agency, Buckinghamshire County Council, Wycombe District Council, Marlow Town Council have been working in partnership with residents to raise awareness of flood risk, develop community resilience and a community flood plan.

Marlow Town Council has also formed a working group of councillors and residents to establish a flooding ‘action plan’ should river levels rise to dangerously high levels again in future.

A county council scheme to improve surface water drainage in Marlow town and prevent further flooding is currently listed as a “pipeline” project in yesterday’s Government announcements.

That project needs around half a million pounds in contributions to get off the ground.

See this Friday’s Marlow Free Press for more on the scheme and the announcement.