Work started on Monday to repair to the flood bank at Riverside Park.

The banks were created in 2009 when the new defences were installed as part of the St Neots Flood Alleviation Scheme to protect the town from flooding.

Since then a trench has been worn into the bank by people taking a shortcut across the top of it. If it went unrepaired, the Environment Agency (EA) said, it would cause further structural problems and the bank’s ability to act as a flood defence.

The work was being carried out over eight months by the EA.

Project manager Ian Cooper said: “Once the work is done we would hope that people will stop using it as a shortcut. They are unwittingly doing damage to an important flood defence, and there is a perfectly good path adjacent to the bank.”