PEOPLE in Woolston Moor celebrated the start of a scheme that will end 25 years of flooding misery.

A £150,00 project has got under way to construct a 900mm culvert to take flood waters away from the east to the west side of the hamlet.

The work, scheduled to take 13 weeks, has been part-funded by DEFRA, and a £1,000 contribution from Bicknoller Parish Council, with West Somerset District Council picking up the £80,000 shortfall, which will be clawed back in its Government spending allowance next year.

Six homes at Woolston, including three listed properties, have suffered flooding up to twice a year. And in 2000, the homes were flooded six times in a year.

Kelvin Rufus, the district council's former technical officer who now runs his own engineering and building design business, is the project's consulting engineer and worked on the scheme before he retired from the authority earlier this year.

"I can remember that when I carried out a review of flooding problems across the district in 1980, Woolston was a high priority even then. It's good to see the work finally under way and a solution to these problems."

The efforts of Mr Rufus and district council ward member Barbara Child were praised by Woolston residents who raised a glass to the start of work on Monday (September 2).

Miss Child said the scheme was one of the things she pledged to concentrate on when she was elected three years ago.

"I never thought I would hear people say the sound of drilling was music to their ears but the people of Woolston did this week."