A group of small firms with 45 employees are fighting plans for a major new gravel pit on their doorstep because of fears over future flooding.

The 10 companies at Park Farm business park in Northmoor, near Standlake, were under more than a foot of water in the summer floods of 2007.

But on Monday, Oxfordshire county councillors are being urged to approve the excavation scheme despite previous advice to wait for a Strategic Flood Risk Assessment report (SFRA).

That report, it has emerged, will be published within the next two weeks. It will contain a section on flood risks in the Thames and Windrush floodplain, near the site, and the effect of gravel digging.

The main fear of residents is that, because a three-metre-high barrier would be put up round the site to keep it dry, floodplain water will spill into their homes and businesses.

Gary Almond, whose offices at Beckley Marquees Ltd was stranded in floodwater, told the Oxford Mail: “We were out for two weeks, along with everyone else on the site.

“The water was up to the top of our wellingtons and the electrics were out. We lost some business. So, why can’t they just wait a couple of weeks to see what the future flood risk really is? It makes us all feel pretty angry.”

Chris Clinkard, who runs Beautiful Linen at Park Farm business park, said: “I don’t know much about gravel digging, but I do know it floods here. It seems to me absolute lunacy to even consider the scheme without a proper assessment of the risks.”

Deborah Gorman, office secretary at Beckley Marquees, said: “I remember the floods here last year.”

The county’s planning and regulation committee has already deferred — in both May and July this year — the application by Hanson, one of the largest suppliers of gravel, sand and crushed rock, to dig at Stonehenge Farm.

Both delays were agreed in order to wait for the SFRA report.

But Chris Cousins, the council’s head of sustainable development, is telling the committee in his report for Monday’s meeting that they should not wait any longer and to give consent for the gravel operations.

He said: “If no decision is made at the meeting, it is open to the applicant to appeal against non-determination.”

An appeal would incur legal costs on the council.

Stonehenge Farm has been a possible site for gravel digging in the county for 30 years, but there has always been resistance in Northmoor and surrounding villages. A pressure group, Outrage (Oxford Upper Thames Residents Against Gravel Extraction) has employed a barrister and firm of solicitors to fight the current scheme.

Chairman Julie Hankey said nothing had changed since the county council deferred decision-making in July.

She added: “The floods of 2007 demonstrated that the risks are severe. The SFRA will specifically address the impact of further mineral extraction in the Lower Windrush Valley floodplain.”

The district council, which commissioned the SFRA report from consultants, confirmed yesterday the report would be ready early in December.

Council leader Barry Norton said: “There has never been an overall strategy for gravel digging in our area. It is turning us into a district of lakes.”

Outrage is planning a protest at County Hall on Monday.