Villagers living in South Hinksey have thanked Environment Agency staff for putting up temporary flood barriers.

The 'demountable' barriers are stored locally in the village near Oxford and erected in times of heavy rainfall.

Adrian Porter, a local member of Oxford Flood Alliance, said the barriers were deployed this week following heavy rain.

READ MORE: Why Oxford's flood channel is taking so long

And he urged the Environment Agency and other agencies to proceed as quickly as possible with the flood alleviation scheme designed to protect some homes and businesses in Oxford.

The flood channel has been planned for many years but has been hit with delays including compulsory purchase orders for land required.

Mr Porter said: "We’ve just had the amazing teams from Environment Agency putting up the demountable flood barriers for the second time this year.

"It hasn’t come as a surprise to most as the ground water has remained consistently high since December, and with the torrents of rain we are experiencing the water has simply somewhere else to go.

Oxford Mail: The temporary flood barriers in South Hinksey"To come from where we were as recently as 2012 when we had almost no support, to a state where we get incredible protection in advance of a flood event is a phenomenal turnaround, and is a great example of what partnership working can achieve but this is depressingly normal.

READ MORE: Family fears for home every time it rains 

"We had a barrier deployment in 2021, a near deployment in 2022 (we escaped by an absolute whisker!) and now two deployments in 2024 – that’s one every year on average. Each time the disruption for the community is significant, with the farm yard and car-park occupied, horses displaced, gardens churned-up and rotas of people to keep an eye on things over-night as the EA don’t have the staff to do it themselves."

Mr Porter added that there was no guarantee of success.

"The decision to deploy is made by an over-stretched agency with input from advisors, flood modelling data, on the ground photographs and other ground-truthing evidence," he added.

"It is inevitably a balance of strategy, finance, operations and infrastructure. In January they got it wrong. An awful 48 hours ensued and several properties flooded as a result."

Oxford Mail: Mr Porter said as part of the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme South Hinksey would get a permanent bund that would give protection to at least 1% Annual Exceedence Probability (1 in 100 year flood event), which would be transformational from what the village suffers today which is effectively 100% AEP (1 in 1 years).

OFAS would also provide protection from groundwater flooding, Mr Porter added.

READ MORE: Flood warnings in place as more rain forecast

He added: "Our permanent bund would be upfront in the build programme, so if spades went in the ground this year we would start to benefit immediately and by winter 2025 we’d likely be protected – with a bit of good luck later this year, this really could be our last flood."

A public inquiry on the flood channel was held last year and a report from it is expected later this year.