Public meeting on plans for The Causeway in Romsey to be held at Crosfield Hall

A public meeting is set to be held at the Crosfield Hall on February 25 at 6pm to give residents the opportunity to have their say on the plans for two new bridges and spillways along The Causeway in Romsey.

As previously reported, concerns were raised over the impact the two bridges aimed at preventing flooding will have on the character of the private road which leads from Sadlers Mill to Middlebridge.

Now the Environment Agency (EA) has confirmed that the work will start at the end March 2019 and will be completed by November 2019, with The Causeway set to be closed to vehicles and pedestrians between the end May and the end of August.

Environment bosses said they are working on a signposted footpath diversion to link Mainstone to Saddlers Mill and confirmed that residents of The Causeway will be able to access their properties via a temporary road.

But further details of the diversions and the scheme are set to be unveiled at next week’s meeting.

An artist impression of what the bridges could look like has also been released but more designs are expected to be available at the meeting on Monday.

As previously reported, the two bridges and spillways are part of a £6million scheme aimed at reducing the risk of flooding in the market town in a bid to prevent a repeat of the flooding which hit Romsey five years ago.

According to the EA the bridges and spillways will start 7m south of the Goat Willow and extend 25m southwards from that point.

The spillways will allow water in the floodplain to re-enter the River Test in a controlled way, without causing erosion to The Causeway, the EA said.

At the public meeting residents will also have the chance to quiz EA representatives and meet the contractor.

David Martin, flood risk team leader for the EA, said: “It is an opportunity for everybody to meet the contractor and have outlined what the scheme is and what it is going to look like. People can still influence the visual nature of the final design, we do not want to impact visually.”

Once decided, the final design will be available at various locations across Romsey.

“Unfortunately we do need to build during the summer but there will be diversion routes. There will be disruption but we’ll keep that at a minimum as much as possible as it is necessary in order to better protect the people and the businesses of Romsey,” Mr Martin said.

He added: “We want to encourage people to come and find out how Romsey will be better protected from flooding and ask any question they may have.”