A £10M flood defence scheme to protect two villages has been unveiled.

Dignitaries gathered in Spring Gardens, near West Auckland, yesterday to inspect the 15-metre high dam, which has been built by the Environment Agency to protect more than 650 homes and businesses from the River Gaunless.

Environment Agency chairman John Harman unveiled the Spring Mill Wildlife Dam and hailed it as an excellent scheme that would ease the worries of people living near the river.

He said: "All of these people whose homes will be protected were living with the possibility of flooding once every five years. Now they could be looking at once every 200 years.

"This scheme has not just been quite a big one in terms of cash, but also in terms of how big an area it covers. I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in building it."

In developing the project, the agency had to focus on the causes of flooding, such as poor land management or inappropriate development in the floodplain and said that people needed to be encouraged to take some action to protect themselves and their property.

It has taken two years to complete the scheme, which was designed to protect South Church and West Auckland, which were devastated by flooding in 2000.

The project uses a considerable area of open countryside for flood storage along with the dam, which will hold back large amounts of water during high river flows.

At least 11 hectares of land have been transformed into a haven for wildlife, to attract otters and toads.