TWO years after North Tawton residents suffered the misery of flooding for two Christmas holidays in a row, the town can celebrate the completion of engineering works on its new flood relief scheme.

The scheme, costing more than £750,000, was spearheaded by West Devon Borough Council and helped by DEFRA funding to the tune of some 45% of the total cost.

Roger Collins, the borough?s head of building services said: ?It?s now five months since we started work ? North Tawton now has a flood relief scheme for a one in 100 years? event and that?s quite an achievement.

?Apparently, it?s quite a record to achieve a project like this in three years ? most take five.?

Mr Collins said the engineering work had now been completed ? all that remained was the landscaping and tidying up, which would be

tackled after the Christmas break.

He said the people of North Tawton could now be confident that the events of two years ago were in the past.

?There?s no doubt that with the rain we had last month, there would have been some form of flooding in North Tawton, so the scheme is working and the hard engineering works are all there,? he said.

Mr Collins said the project had not been ?without tears? ? the earth was clay-based and this soil, combined with wet weather, made the project hard going.

The work had been made harder by the ?terrible? infrastructure in North Tawton and contractors had been forced virtually to rebuild the leat behind Fore Street.

The flood prevention work included creation of a ?flood lagoon? at the top end of North Tawton, remodelling of the stream and relaying of sewer pipes.

Mr Collins said: ?Environmentally, we have tied up all the sewage pollution problems in the area and re-profiled the stream through the back gardens in Fore Street which used to flood.

?Now you won?t get water coming down in a great rush, it will be controlled.?

Other works included relaying flood culverts at Taw Vale and building a flood wall at Mill Lane.

Speaking at last week?s meeting of West Devon?s partnership committee, Cllr Bill Cann, of South Zeal, made a vote to thanks to the the borough council in achieving the flood relief scheme.

Cllr Cann said: ?West Devon has put a great deal of effort into this, a lot of hard work and I?m sure it can?t have been an easy time.?

Cllr Nick Morgan, ward member for North Tawton, said: ?Obviously everybody in North Tawton should be pleased at what?s happened ? and I think everybody was surprised at the amount of work that?s been going on.

?It?s been a major piece of work ? I just hope it will never need to be tested!?

l A STICKLEPATH couple so fed up with living with the fear of flooding have installed a special floodgate at their own expense.

Yvonne Reason and her husband live at Bridge House in Sticklepath. They have had the £1,000-plus custom-built flood barrier built for them by Floodgate of Newton Abbot.

Mrs Reason said: ?We live right by the river and we?ve been flooded a couple of times. We have lived in fear and trepidation every time it rains and spent many nights just holding the water back.?

She said work to lessen the risk had been carried out by Dartmoor National Park Authority, but the couple eventually decided to take matters into their own hands by installing the floodgate.

?It could have got to the stage where insurance companies just wouldn?t insure us because of the risk,? she said.