CAMPAIGNERS have been given fresh hope that a £3.7m scheme to ease flood problems in Witney could still go ahead.

People living close to the culvert where Max Sullivan-Webb (also known as Max Weeden) died in last year’s floods were dealt a blow when the Environment Agency said it would not be able to pay for its preferred solution to the problems.

Last June, 17-year-old Max, of Judds Close, Witney, died after getting trapped in five feet of flood water in a culvert near Eastfield Road.

The agency said earlier this week that the Government would not give it the money to pay for the project.

But, at a meeting yesterday, officials said the agency was in talks with the council to find alternative ways to build three upstream storage areas for flood water.

Peter Collins, a flood risk management team leader at the agency, said it could still apply for about £600,000 from the Government to use towards the scheme.

He said: “We have got a viable scheme that needs to be fleshed out. To get it put on the ground, it needs a partnership approach.

“Whether other parties are able to contribute on that scale is being discussed at the moment.”

Mr Collins said another alternative would be for the agency to partly fund the estimated £900,000 costs of building the water storage areas, which would then be maintained — the majority of the estimated costs — by a third party.

Malcolm Willis, chairman of the Witney Flood Action Group, was at the meeting, held at West Oxfordshire District Council’s offices, in Wood Green, Witney. He said: “What annoys me more than anything is the formula that they have to use from the Government. It’s all about ‘payback’.

“If it had flooded 1,000 houses, then the payback would be worthwhile, but because it only flooded 20 to 30 houses, then the payback is limited.”

David Wass’s home in Burwell Meadow has been flooded four times in the past three years.

He said: “Generally there has to be more action and less talking.

“That’s the problem – there are a lot of people talking, but not solving the problem.”

Mike French, 65, of Mill Street, added: “We need money to be spent in the area.”

The Environment Agency, district and county councils, Thames Water and the flood action group will meet again in the next couple of months.