BARRIERS could be used at the Mill Stream in Dorchester to prevent properties being flooded in the times of an emergency.

The proposal comes from the Environment Agency who say they could be used to create a temporary wall to hold back floodwater.

It has identified the parking area and river bank outside the former refuge building, once an Eldridge Pope pub, at the junction of Mill Street and Holloway Road.

The barrier, made of a metal framework with a waterproof membrane, would be 20metres long and 1metre high, and would only be deployed if the forecast predicted that properties in the area might be flooded.

A test of the barriers is expected to be held later this month. Residents will be told personally when this is likely to happen so they can keep their cars out of the way.

The Agency say that in addition to the temporary barrier it is also working on designs to improve the water flow in the stream at the corner of River Crescent and the Mill Stream footpath where water partially flooded the area in 2012.

Local councillor Stella Jones welcomed the proposals at a town council planning meeting on Monday evening.

“I’m very pleased the Environment Agency are actually going to do something, at last, in River Crescent and Mill Street. It was eight years ago we had a big flood down there and, hopefully, it will work and stop any more flooding like that,” she said.

“While they are doing the works they will have to close the footpath by the stream. Hopefully while we are doing that we, as a town council, can work with them to make improvements there,” she said.

Cllr Andy Canning said that the long-term management of the Mill Stream area was going to be taken on by the Dorset Wildlife Trust and while some of the work started near Friary Hill, further up stream, it came to a stop because of a lack of suitable volunteers.