SIX years after the River Roding's banks burst, the Environment Agency has finally come up with some preventative proposals, giving residents just six weeks to respond.

Flood defences planned for the River Roding will only be breached by one storm a century, if they are ever built.

After the river burst its banks six years ago, leaving 250 homes flooded, the Environment Agency (EA) started working on plans to prevent it from happening again.

Last September it held a drop-in session for residents at the Broadmead Baptist Church, which was itself flooded in 2000, and now they have published suggestions for protecting homes in the area.

Ray Park in Woodford Green and a field north of the church are to be dug up and turned into flood storage areas as might the Woodford Green allotments.

In its plans, the EA writes: "Flood storage areas are the most environmentally acceptable options as they pose less risk of negative impacts upon the ecology and landscape of the river habitat than improving channel capacity or raising defences."

An area at Shonks Mill Bridge, north of the M25, would also be turned into a flood storage area to reduce the flow downstream.

And work will take place on a small section of the left bank of the Roding, immediately north of the gas holder station of Ray Park.

There will also be some repair work undertaken to reconstruct the banks of the Roding to its original height.

Residents have until December 15 to comment on the proposals, when they will pass to the EA's national review board, but the proposals will have to battle with other flood defence plans around the country to secure funding, and there's no guarantee of success.

It will need support and funding from Redbridge Council and Thames Water, which recently sold to an Australian bank for £8 billion, and if they do succeed in being approved it could be as late as 2012 or 2013 before the defences are in place.

Roding ward councillor, Felicity Banks, said: "I welcome the fact that we have got the proposals after six years, but in 2000 we were promised we would get them in 18 months.

"The people along there have suffered badly from these floods, their insurance has gone up enormously, and some can't afford it at all."

The EA says that the existing protection should only be breached once every 50 years and that their plans would increase this to once every century but stress that this is only a statistical probability and cannot be guaranteed.

It said: "Current flood defences on the Roding provide protection to around 2,320 properties in a 100 year flood event, but over 2,400 properties remain at risk. The flood risk management options proposed by the Roding strategy would provide protection to approximately 2,300 additional properties in a 100 year flood event."

The strategy sees an extension of its existing flood warning system but rules out any attempt to increase the capacity of the river channel.

They said: "This option was discounted because of the technical difficulties and the likelihood of flooding not being reduced to a sufficient standard.

"In many of the flood prone areas in the Lower Roding catchment there is little scope for widening the channel due to urbanisation within the floodplain. This option would also have environmental implications, such as impacts on local ecology."

Redbridge Council civil engineering officer John Martin said: "The proposals show a potential start date for construction of 2010.

"That is still unfortunately quite a long time in the future, but I would urge all residents to respond to the EA with their comments.

"I think that the more comments we come back with and the greater the extent of local interest, the more push we will have with the EA."

n If you believe your property is at risk of flooding you may be able to register for automatic flood alerts. Call the Environment Agency on 0845 988 1188 for more details.

The proposals can be seen at local libraries, the planning department of Redbridge Council, or at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/riverroding.