A LONG-awaited scheme to reduce the risk of flooding in Pickering is almost complete.

The Environment Agency is currently putting the final touches to a flood storage area in Newtondale, upstream of Pickering, as the final piece to help slow the flow of water from the North York Moors into Pickering Beck and subsequently down into the town.

The Defra Slowing the Flow pilot project, led by Forest Research, will help to better protect 50 houses in the town which are vulnerable to flooding.

Slowing the Flow partnership chairman Jeremy Walker said the flood storage area will temporarily hold a large volume of flood water that would otherwise flow down into the town, causing flooding.

He said: "It has taken much effort to get to this point, which has only been possible through strong partnership working with funding support from many sources, particularly Ryedale, North Yorkshire and Pickering Councils, the Environment Agency and Defra, as well as the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.

"We are very grateful for their support and also to the residents of Pickering for their patience with the associated additional traffic and disruption."

The work has also included planting trees, building woody debris dams in becks and streams and establishing no-burn buffer zones as well as targeting blocking of moorland drains.

Although the work, which started in January 2014, will not prevent flooding entirely, those behind the project say it will "significantly improve the standard of protection for Pickering" and reduce the towns chance of flooding from 25 per cent to four per cent chance or less.

The most recent major flood in Pickering was in 2007 which saw 85 properties and the main A170 flooded, causing about £7m of damage.

A statement from the Environment Agency said: "The work undertaken by the Slowing the Flow project will not prevent the most severe floods such as that in 2007, but will greatly reduce the frequency of floods in the town."