A MAN has criticised the Environment Agency for failing to tell him or his neighbours that their homes lie within a proposed flood plain.

Ryan Gilbey's home is about 30ft from the site of a planned giant earth dam, which is 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, and in the eventuality of a severe flood would create a 1,000ft flood lake that would engulf his garden and possibly his home.

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

The Environment Agency is now in discussions with the residents to try to find a way to protect their gardens. But it is of little consolation to Mr Gilbey's parents, who have now 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 didn't tell anyone upstream.

"Our properties will flood every five years. We've never flooded before.

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

Mr Gilbey discovered other residents downstream of the dam, in Ramshaw, had not been informed and now the worried residents have formed the Gaunless Action Group. They were contacted too late by the Environment Agency to put an objection before Wear Valley District Council planners, who approved the scheme in February.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said the scheme was designed to protect the property from the kind of flooding that occurred once every 200 years and said it was only the garden at risk of flooding, not Mr Gilbey's home.

She said: "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.