PEOPLE in Oxford are being given the chance to shape a multi-million-pound strategy to protect the city from flooding over the next 100 years.

This week, the Environment Agency is launching a 12-week consultation into a series of proposals, including spending up to £100m on a new channel as wide as the River Thames, west of the city. The 17-page consultation document is being sent to more than 2,500 residents.

Environment Agency spokes-man Keith Hutchence said it was the biggest consultation on flood risk management ever to be undertaken in the city.

Mr Hutchence said: “We want to reduce the risk of flooding to people in their homes and businesses, but we are not looking at a quick fix — we are looking at flooding in Oxford over the next century. We have come up with options ranging from doing nothing to spending millions of pounds creating new watercourses and channels west of Oxford.”

Mr Hutchence said one of the key aims of the strategy was to make full use of existing flood plains on the outskirts of the city.

. As well as the new channel, the EA is consulting the public on whether bunding — a giant earth barrier — could be built to protect the city or whether more temporary defences such as the £180,000 barriers bought to protect Osney Island should be used.

The EA’s proposals will be on display at the Town Hall on Saturday, March 28