PLANNING chiefs have approved a multi-million-pound scheme to protect a New Forest town from the threat of flooding.

The district council has granted an application to install a floodgate at Bridge Road, Lymington, and more than 800 metres of sheet piling along the western bank of the Lymington River.

The Environment Agency scheme, which aims to protect 150 homes in the Waterloo Road area, is due to start next year.

Engineers are determined to prevent any repetition of the floods that struck in 1999, when low-lying residential areas were hit by a combination of heavy rain and an exceptionally high tide.

The sheet piling will be installed next to the Lymington to Brockenhurst railway line and will have to be approved by Network Rail.

During the next few months the agency will use radar equipment to locate existing pipes and cables and will also produce a traffic management plan to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum during the construction phase.

The railway is next to the Lymington reedbeds, an area of Special Scientific Interest.

Bird and bat roosting surveys will take place before vegetation is removed to make way for the piling, and bird and bat boxes will be provided once the work is complete.

Tree and hedgerow planting will be carried out in the Bridge Road area to screen the new flood defences.

Last month the agency completed a £4m scheme to protect hundreds of houses and businesses in Ringwood and Fordingbridge from the threat of flooding.