FURIOUS residents have condemned a decision for a nursery to be built on a Woodford Green flood plain.

Councillors gave the go-ahead to proposals to replace the former home of Woodford Town Football Club in Snakes Lane East, despite the Environment Agency's warning that the land is still liable to flood.

During last year's floods, residents living next to the land saw six feet of water when the River Roding burst its banks and many people's back gardens were flooded.

At Thursday's extraordinary area committee meeting, councillors agreed recommendations that the application could go ahead with the condition that the building foundations be raised to accommodate any future flooding.

Planning permission had already been given, but owing to objections from nearby residents and the Environment Agency, the condition to increase the height was added.

The new building will be a single-storey day nursery with car parking and play space.

Resident Kathleen Phillips said: It's unbelievable. How they can agree to buildings on there, let alone a nursery, we just don't know.

My garden was flooded last year, the land which has been designated as a flood plain was full of water and it will happen again if we get the rain.

All we can do now is to keep an eye on the situation; there's not much more we can do if planning permission has been given. But we will continue to watch what happens.

Fellow resident Sandra Day said: Where will the water go now, if it floods again? Will it now go in our houses this time? We just don't know how this has been agreed.

Residents also complained about the lack of proper details and plans and felt the meeting was held too early in the evening, which meant many residents were unable to attend. Other people living in Glastonbury Avenue put forward written objections claiming that development on this type of land would contribute to flooding.

They also disagreed with the council officers' claim that the flooding could only really happen every 100 years. Many residents claimed that they had experienced flooding three times in the last 25 years.

Councillors, including Bridge ward councillor Peter Lawrence, questioned council officers over drainage concerns which were evident when the building was used by the football club.

Officers agreed that the land was liable to flooding but felt that the increased height of the building, it would be able to cope with any flooding.