HUNDREDS of homes in East Lancashire are set to benefit from flood prevention works as a result of the recovery campaign since the deluges of Christmas 2015.

But more than 1,200 extra properties have been earmarked for engineering projects in the next three years as councils and the Environment Agency (EA) seek to prevent a recurrence of the havoc wreaked 15 months ago.

Whalley, Padiham and Earby were among those hardest-hit by the floods, caused by Storm Eva, but several other areas can look forward to protection initiatives.

Nearly 1,100 households in Darwen will be protected when £4.3million worth of EA improvements are made to Jacks Key Reservoir and the River Darwen, before April 2018.

And longer-term a £640,000 county council-led surface water run-off scheme in Whalley and Billington should safeguard 350 properties.

Rachel Crompton, the county council’s flood risk manager, said: “Investigations, communication projects and programmes of work were already in place before the December 2015 floods and have continued to be delivered through the subsequent recovery period.

“These commitments have been supplemented by numerous new and supplemental areas of activity arising from the December 2015 floods.”

A total of 53 homes near Waterfall Mill in Blackburn have said to have reaped the rewards of a £1.8million EA protections scheme.

A further £2.22million has also been spent on similar efforts in The Wranglings area of Blackburn, close to the district’s under-construction rail depot.

Several smaller ventures, for those living near Ewood Mill Race Embankment, Old Gate Drive in Blackburn, the Birch Hall area of Darwen and parts of Pendle, Waterfoot, Rawtenstall, Bacup and Shawforth, have also been pencilled in, safeguarding more than 300 further homes.

Grant schemes were run by town halls, with most deadlines expiring at the end of March, and several other allocations have been undertaken by using local levys.

Trawden Brook and Mearley Brook in Clitheroe have been both identified as concerns.