Preparations will begin tomorrow for a £1.8m programme of measures to prevent a repeat of last July's floods in Oxford.

The Environment Agency unveiled the package of measures in the summer, which includes removing silt and overgrown vegetation from the Seacourt and Bulstake Streams off Botley Road.

Contractors will start moving machinery into place tomorrow, with the 15-week programme of work starting on Wednesday, October 29.

Environment Agency spokesman Keith Hutchence said: "Residents will start to see machinery moving into place, ready for work to begin in two weeks' time."

Staff will also carry out maintenance work along Hinksey Drain at Redbridge, and install new culverts to remove a pinch point in Hinksey Drain near the Old Abingdon Road.

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

Dr Peter Rawcliffe, of the Oxford Flood Alliance, said residents welcomed the work but added there were still areas of concern and members of the group would continue to lobby the agency on these issues.

Dr Rawcliffe said: "We welcome the work that is being carried out but we will continue to press the Environment Agency for more work on the Hinksey Drain.

"At one point a concrete wall needs to be removed, the channel north needs to be made wider, and the culvert beneath the railway bridge needs clearing out.

"The concrete wall is the last obstruction in the Hinksey Drain preventing water from flowing beneath the railway line and out into the Thames."

John Mastroddi, 59, of Kennington Road, Kennington, lives in a house which backs on to Hinksey Drain.

He said: "The Oxford Flood Alliance has identified three pinch points in the Redbridge area and the Environment Agency has agreed to carry out work on two of them but it wants to conduct more research before it agrees to work on the third."

Mr Hutchence said the EA would continue to discuss work on the Hinksey Drain with residents.

Earlier this year, it was announced that barriers made of galvanised steel would be deployed by the Environment Agency at strategic locations on Osney Island, with the £150,000 defences stored at the EA's depot in Osney Mead.

Richard Thurston, a spokesman for the Osney Island Residents' Association, who is also a member of the Oxford Flood Alliance, welcomed the start of the £1.8m programme and added: "This is good news for all of us but it remains to be seen if the programme of work goes far enough because the weather is so variable."