IT has taken almost 30 months of anger, frustration, heartache and sheer hard work, but the campaign to protect parts of Worcester from the fickle flooding River Severn is beginning to reap its reward.

Since the awful floods of 2000, with each spring and autumn bringing a fresh tension along a river whose natural balance is so out of kilter, residents and businesses have been waiting for a practical response to the threat.

In the early days after the 2000 deluge, there was talk of floating walkways, flip-down road signs, traffic management and better information.

It was evidence that some lessons had been learnt about how to manage the chaos, but scant consolation to those who feared the next storm.

Today, Floods Minister Eliot Morley was expected to confirm £100,000 funding to put temporary flood defences on Hylton Road before the end of the year.

The barrier is expected to be made from pallets mounted on a metal pole and will run north of Sabrina Bridge.

It would be churlish in the extreme not to welcome the news as the boost that it is.

Likewise, it would be an oversight not to temper that by noting that, under the Government's formula for assessing the cost-effectiveness of permanent defences, it will be at least three years before further work is approved.

To all those whose hard work has made this possible - MP Mike Foster and Mary Dhonau, chairman of Worcester Action Against Flooding at the fore - we say thanks and well done.

It leaves us keeping our eyes on the weather forecast for the next three years.