Residents are planning a protest after Thames Water removed children's play equipment without warning and gave them two weeks' notice of a nine-month sewage works scheme.

Michael Haines, front, and Bill Munnolly, are angry about Thames Water's decision to start a sewage relief scheme

Thames Water is planning to install two 20m-deep sewage storage tanks at Croft Road recreation ground and Court Place Farm, in Boults Lane, Marston, to solve flooding problems in the Oxford suburb.

Householders in Edgeway and Ferry Roads have been calling for work to upgrade the Victorian sewage network for more than 25 years because of flooding problems.

Thames Water said it had to move quickly to make sure flooding relief was in place before the extensions to the nearby John Radcliffe Hospital were completed next summer, and promised residents the playground would be modernised.

Councillors criticised the water company for failing to inform the community in advance and more than 200 residents living near the proposed sewage tanks have signed a protest petition.

They do not want the sewage tank placed under a children's play area and are angry that they will face nine months of disruption.

Play equipment at the recreation ground has been removed and work is scheduled to start on Tuesday (August 31).

Michael Haines, of Croft Road, said residents would be protesting at the recreation ground when workers arrived.

He said: "The play equipment was taken out without anybody knowing. "Thames Water sent us a letter dated August 17, saying they had written letters in February to all the people in Marston about this. I asked every single one of the 231 people who signed the petition if they had received this letter and everyone said 'no'."

Neighbour William Munnolly said disappointed children had been turning up at the recreation ground, only to discover they could not play.

He added: "We're worried about having this sewage tank right underneath the children's swings where the kids play about."

Maureen Christian, Headington Hill and Northway ward councillor, welcomed Thames Water's willingness to act, but said the firm had handled the situation insensitively.

She said: "I have been campaigning for years. I don't think it's quite right for us now to stop that work because there are people who really suffer from having open sewage in their gardens.

"We can castigate Thames Water for not giving us information that the recreation ground was closing, which is a real disaster for the area.

"The right for public utility companies to grant themselves planning permission should have been taken away when they became private companies."

John Atkins, lead design engineer on the project, said Thames Water had agreed the closure of the recreation ground with officers at the council's parks and leisure services.

He said: "The playground will be shut for the winter, then will be rebuilt to the latest standard - Thames Water will pay for that.

"There will be a lot of construction traffic. When the job's finished, you will just see manhole covers in the recreation ground."