LONG awaited drainage works at the Southill shopping centre in Weymouth will begin next week.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council has announced it will begin working in the area around Tuesday, January 11.

A council spokesman said the works, which are due to be finished within three to four weeks, have been ‘much anticipated by the local community’ since December 2008, when heavy rain resulted in the flooding of homes, shops and the car park.

The council plans to close the lower entrance to the car park but still allow access to the shops when the works get underway.

The works will be located in the grassed area in front of the shops and will require the reconstruction of a short length of the access road to the car park.

The centre of the grassed area will be deepened to allow the temporary collection of flood water and its diversion back into the main drainage culvert which passes under the site.

The council believes the works will be sufficient to deal with any flooding in the future.

The council’s environment and sustainability spokesman, Coun Brendan Webster, said: “I am delighted that we are now able to go ahead with this work which has been delayed because of protracted negotiations.”

Gary Dipple of Tiding’s newsagents has long campaigned for the work to be carried out and said that it couldn’t come soon enough.

Ward councillor Christine James added: “I am really pleased at the news that work is going to begin on this scheme.

“I have been campaigning to get this done since the flooding two years ago and at last we are making progress.”

Residents told the Dorset Echo it is high time the works got underway.

Retired naval engineer Roy Lakeman, of Southill Garden Drive, said: “There’s always been a problem with flooding in this area for as long as I can remember.

“I don’t think the council’s done enough to keep the drains that they have already clear.”

Shop worker Mark Pullen, 47, of The Rise, said: “It’s about time the council did something down here.

“It’s a shame that they couldn’t have started the work any earlier but maybe there’s enough work going on in the town already.”

Paul Cobham, 38, of Hammond Avenue, added: “I’ve not got a problem with the council doing the work and it sounds like it needs to be done.

“This area has flooded in the past and it has been a problem.”