A £1.8M package of measures to reduce flood risk in Oxford is being unveiled.

The Environment Agency says it has finalised a list of measure that "will make a real difference" to thousands of homes and businesses living under the threat of a repeat of last summer's devastating floods.

The programme will involve extensive works on streams and drains in west and southern parts of the city to improve the flow of water through the city.

And it should see flood barriers being deployed off Abingdon Road, as well as Osney Island.

The measures follow more than six months of talks with local councils and residents' groups in the aftermath of the July floods.

Most of the measures will aim to improve water flow through key water channels that criss-cross the city to reduce the risk of flooding in the Abingdon Road and Botley Road areas.

Planning permission will be sought to divert the course of the Hinksey Drain. And the programme will see the removal of silt and overgrown vegetation along the Seacourt Stream and Bulstake Stream in the Botley Road area and along the Hinksey Drain at the Redbridge end of the Abingdon Road.

Subject to funding approval, work is due to start this autumn.

Barriers made of galvanised steel are already to be deployed at strategic locations on Osney Island. The £150,000 mobile defences, to be stored at the EA's Osney Mead depot, will be ready for use from July.

The EA says it is also considering the use of similar mobile flood defences for Vicarage Lane, off Abingdon Road.

Geoff Bell, the EA's area flood risk manager, said that the measures were "technically feasible, financially viable and environmentally acceptable".

He said: "We have worked with the residents of Oxford and the local authority to come up with some practical solutions to make a real difference to the issue of flooding in the city.

"We have looked at a wide range of options that we can carry out in the short term. The proposals we have put forward here are ones which we know we can get done within the next 12 months. We have received numerous requests for schemes and we have considered them seriously. However, many of these could not be realistically carried out in the short term, although they are still being addressed as part of the long-term strategy.

"This programme is in addition to the £150,000 the agency has already spent on mobile flood defence barriers at Osney Island. Together, they are another phase of the wider Oxford strategy, which aims to identify a long-term and sustainable solution to the risk of flooding in the city."

The barriers for Osney Island will be deployed at specific locations in the area when flooding is expected.

When used alongside pumps they will help protect up to 75 properties from the river and groundwater. Residents will shortly be invited to see them being tested on site.

Susanna Pressel, city councillor for Osney and Jericho who was installed as Lord Mayor yesterday, said: "This is fantastic news. The work cannot begin soon enough.

"Local residents have been telling the EA for years that more maintenance needs to be done on these local streams. So it is good that these expensive consultants are telling them the same thing and being believed."

But the agency says it is continuing to work on the far more costly long-term solution to flood risk in the Oxford area.

The EA has still not entirely ruled out a £100m flood relief channel running from the Thames at Binsey to Sandford Lock.

The agency is also investigating the creation of four large 'water storage areas' beside the Thames and Cherwell, north of Oxford. These would consist of large areas of farmland that would be allowed to flood.