A BARRIER of wooden pallets covered in plastic sheeting looks set to be used to stop floodwater devastating homes and businesses in Worcester.

A council committee has approved plans for Hylton Road to become one of the first places in the country to try the Swedish-invented pallet barrier system, which its makers say can be put up faster than the water rises.

In the event of the Environment Agency being satisfied that floods were about to strike, the flat-packed barriers would be moved from Kidderminster and put into place.

The system involves metal supports being unfolded and the wooden pallets being laid on top of them, at an angle, before being covered in a thin plastic membrane.

Pumps behind the barrier would remove any underground water seeping through and drains would be blocked.

Britt Warg - the UK sales manager for Geodesign Barriers, which make the device - told last night's meeting of the city's development services policy and review committee that the pallet barriers were the next evolutionary step in flood defence and were 100 times faster to erect than sandbags.

Worcester does not qualify for funding for permanent flood defences, so temporary measures are the best the city can hope for at the moment.

Waverley Street flood victim Mary Dhonau, who has campaigned for better city defences, called for the scheme to be approved on behalf of the National Flood Forum.

"It's either do this or do nothing," said Peter May, flood defence manager for the Environment Agency.

The barriers have already been bought by the EA with a £600,000 grant from the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs.

It would cost £2,400 to put up in Hylton Road and remove afterwards, and £1,000 to maintain for each day of the flood.

Councillors were concerned about how the bill would be split between the EA and city and county councils.

Questions were also asked about whether the defences would allow Hylton Road to remain open, and whether - after the year's test - the EA would pack up the defences and leave.

The representatives of the EA said those concerns would be ironed out with local authorities as the plans progressed.

Members of the committee voted unanimously to recommend the scheme to the city council's cabinet meeting tonight.

Because of the greater number of residents and businesses on Hylton Road, councillors recommended the scheme be tested there rather than Quay Street, the other potential location downstream on the East bank of the Severn.