PLANS to protect 19 homes at an increased flood risk due to proposed railway works at Hinksey have been scrapped by Oxford City Council.

Network Rail wants to raise the railway track at Hinksey and install a culvert to mitigate flood risk.

City council planning officers have recommended the £18m scheme go ahead despite admitting it would increase flood risk to 19 properties.

Officers argued it was an "exceptional case" citing the wider benefits of making the railway more reliable.

At a public meeting earlier this week the council's executive director of community services said further protection for those properties was not on the cards.

He said: "We are talking about a 1 in 100 years flooding event.

"As we would be protecting these 19 properties in isolation of the some 1,800 properties at risk in the city, the idea was discontinued."

Wolvercote city councillor Mike Gotch had asked whether measures such as the lifting up of electric cables or installation of concrete floors could be provided.

The proposals will increase the flood depth level at 19 properties in the event of a 1 in 100 years flood.

Seven of those properties sit to the east of the railway in three separate streets while 12 are on the west side in the South Hinksey area.

City development officer Fiona Bartholomew said: "We have acknowledged the scheme fails part of the national planning policy framework exception test in that it increases flood risk but there are significant wider benefits.

The council's West Area planning committee will decide on the plans - originally meant to be decided on by officers before it was called-in - when it meets at Town Hall on Tuesday at 2pm.