A major scheme to protect Helston homes from flooding has been given the go-ahead – despite some neighbours objecting and one describing it “a complete waste of money.”

Experts have warned that Helston is at risk of flooding every year - and that this likelihood is set to double in the coming years.

The project is being led by the Environment Agency and involves building a new flood defence wall on land at the River Cober, west of St Johns Road and Mill Lane.

This will be placed between Cober Dell and Willowdale, with a road ramp to act as a flood defence and access for both vehicles and pedestrians slightly further south.

The existing flood embankment will be raised and reinforced, and immediately south of St John's Road Bridge a new flood defence will be added on top of the river bank.

Six new sections of flood defence wall are to be built between St John's Road Bridge and County Bridge, on the A394 Penzance Road, with a surface water pumping chamber at the junction between Almshouse Hill and St John’s Road.

A new, high floodgate close to Kingdom Hall Bridge will be added for continued access to the Jehovah's Witnesses hall.

However, not everyone is in favour of the scheme. Two neighbours wrote to Cornwall Council objecting to the loss of their views, with one saying: “We understand the need to improve Helston's flood defences but by having a five/six foot barrier on land that has never, ever flooded seems a very costly and unnecessary process.

“Since the second arch under St Johns Bridge has been cleared, we have noticed a major difference in the water level of the river during very wet periods. The new pipe at Loe Bar must also be helping to control the river levels.”

“We feel that this is a complete waste of money and would be better spent elsewhere.”

Another wrote: “I purchased my property knowing that it was in risk of flooding, but as we spend a lot of time outdoors as a family I was prepared to take that chance as it was the garden that clinched the deal for us, especially with its view of the river from the bottom of our garden.”

She said she was “happy per se in the overall flood defence scheme” but not to changes to her garden without further consultation and compromise.

Despite this, Cornwall Council has now given conditional approval to the plans.

The council’s conservation officer also acknowledged there would be some harm on the conservation area, through the loss of part of a natural stone wall to the rear of St Johns Road.

However, case officer Peter Gregory said the harm was “clearly weighed against the significant public benefits of the proposal.”

Mr Gregory added that to mitigate some of the inconvenience and disturbance to residents during works, a temporary visual barrier will be placed between the working areas and the rear façade of properties on St Johns Road, along with protection matting, and all garden areas, outbuildings and boundary features will be replaced and put right once work is finished.

The plans also include various new maintenance access points, plus a temporary compound at the Fairground Car Park off Porthleven Road for contractors while work takes place, with a second accessed via Mill Lane.

This will mean a temporary diversion of two footpaths at the northern end of Mill Lane, subject to separate permission.

The last flood alleviation scheme was completed in 1989, which involved making a larger water channel, and since then the frequency of flooding has reduced.

However, the town suffered severe flooding in 1993 when around 50 homes were flooded, and again in December 2012 when a high River Cober coincided with a high water level in Loe Pool, which did not have enough time to drain to a normal level.

This caused a number of homes in the St Johns area to be flooded just before Christmas, with the evacuation of 200 householders and a severe flood warning, meaning "risk to life," in place for two days. At some points as much as 9,000 litres of water per minute was pumped away.

As an emergency measure the Environment Agency brought in a number of large capacity pumps, which have been in place ever since in case of further incidents.

However, a report accompanying the plans states this pumping arrangement is “not considered to be a sustainable long term solution, with the expected impact of climate change requiring this emergency procedure to become more frequent in the future."

It goes on to say that testing as part of the planning application confirmed that Helston was currently at risk from flooding from the River Cober, with a one in ten annual probability of flooding from the river. This increased to a one in five annual probability when future climate change was taken into account.