Councillors have agreed to spend £1.1million to fund a flood scheme for Colindale, Edgware and Burnt Oak.

Council leader Alan Williams answered residents' prayers at a meeting of the policy and implementation committee on Thursday when he backed the plan to make five yearly payments of about £200,000 to a flood alleviation scheme for the area.

But the years of wellies and sandbags are not over yet. The council's decision still has to be agreed by the budget committee on March 2, and the Environment Agency says that even if the £6,300,000 scheme is approved by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Foods (MAFF), work will not start until September 2001.

For 26 years, residents have been living in fear of flooding from the Silk Stream which has already claimed at least three lives and cost the council and traders millions.

The decision to help fund the scheme was backed by councillors across the political board. Tory Joan Scannell said: "We can't continue to put people's lives in Edgware, Burnt Oak and Colindale at risk."

After the meeting, Hendon MP Andrew Dismore said he was still doing all he could to raise the scheme's profile in parliament: "This is welcome news. Things are starting to move but it will take time. It's question of putting the screws on the Environment Agency to do their share."

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