WORK has started on a £7.8m scheme that will protect two villages from flooding.

More than 400 homes and businesses in South Church and West Auckland, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, were flooded when the River Gaunless burst its banks in June 2000.

Many people lost everything in the devastation and were unable to return to their homes for months.

The disaster has left the two communities living with the fear that every time it rains heavily it will happen again.

But they breathed a sigh of relief as Bishop Auckland MP Derek Foster launched the start of the multi-million Environment Agency scheme.

He visited St Andrew's Primary School, in Henknowle, which had to replace the floors in all its classrooms and was subject to a major clean-up after it was flooded by water three feet deep.

Flood defence walls and embankments will be built along the River Gaunless throughout both communities and next to the school playing fields.

Detailed plans of the scheme were on display at the school until 7pm on Friday.

The project will also include a dam across the river at Spring Gardens, designed to hold back floodwater.