A MAN fears his home could be at risk if an ambitious flood defence scheme goes ahead.

Ryan Gilbey's home lies about 30ft from the site of a proposed giant earth dam, which is being designed to prevent a repeat of the floods that devastated West Auckland and South Church two summers ago.

The barrier will plug a valley near Spring Gardens, West Auckland.

In the event of a severe flood, the barrier would create a 1,000ft flood lake that would engulf Mr Gilbey's garden.

He fears his home could also be affected if the flooding was severe enough.

Mr Gilbey, 25, who lives with his parents at Railway Cottages, Etherley Bank, said he only found out about the plans after reading about them in the January 25 edition of The Northern Echo.

By the time he was contacted by the Environment Agency it was too late to submit a formal objection to Wear Valley District Council's planning committee, which recently approved the scheme.

The Environment Agency is now in discussion with residents to try to decide on some form of defences to protect their gardens.

But it is of little consolation to Mr Gilbey's parents, who have already put the family home up for sale.

He said: "The Environment Agency has held meetings and distributed leaflets to everyone in South Church and West Auckland, but did not tell anyone upstream. Our properties will flood every five years. We have never flooded before.

"They asked me to approach land agents to try to offer us some compensation package. But to be honest it is the worry of being flooded."

Mr Gilbey says other residents in Ramshaw, downstream of the proposed dam, have not been consulted.

Now worried residents have formed the Gaunless Action Group.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said the scheme was designed to protect properties from the levels of flooding that occurred once every 200 years.

She said that it was only Mr Gilbey's garden which was at risk of flooding, not his home.

"We are sorry that the details of the scheme were not explained to Mr Gilbey earlier. We have now discussed the scheme with him and his family and invited them to an information open day held in West Auckland," she said.