Vital work to prepare for the controversial West Kirby flood wall to be built is underway.

This year, a 1.2 metre tall flood wall will be built there, despite campaigners arguing it will stop people coming to the town.

The plan was approved by a Wirral Council committee last year. The meeting heard that over the next 100 years, approximately 26 people will be at risk of being killed if protections are not put in place, and more than 70 properties would also be protected by a flood wall.

In March, campaigner Dawn Wormell, from West Kirby, said: "It will be awful, we'll have a lot less people coming. Some people may want to stay in their car, park up, and maybe have some chips. The wall would take away the opportunity to park and enjoy the view, I find that quite upsetting."

Now, some of the memorial benches along South Parade are being removed in batches to make way for major engineering work on the new wall to begin in June. All benches will be retained and safely stored before they can be repurposed or repositioned elsewhere in line with the wishes of those who own the memorials.

Any unclaimed benches, or ones where the owner did not express a preference for a new home, will also be reused. This means no benches will be lost.

New memorial plaques, identical to the originals, will be mounted onto the new flood wall in the same location as the originals or as near as possible. People wanting to visit the town should bear in mind the car park at Dee Lane is closed.

Parking will still be possible along South Parade for the next few weeks, before the building of the flood wall starts. Visitors are urged to use public transport to travel to West Kirby if possible due to the limited parking facilities.

Another impression of the wall - Picture: Wirral Council

Those campaigning against the wall point to cost issues. Since last November, the official estimate for the cost of the flood defence project has risen by more than £4m to a huge £9.7m due to various issues.

They include rising raw material costs, the need to complete work before this winter in order to minimise the impact on wildlife and the fact the design had to be amended to address 'very poor' ground conditions identified along the promenade.

Yet Wirral Council will not be providing the additional money itself. The original £2.4m sum it pledged to the project, which is from its capital budget meaning it is not competing for funds with day-to-day services such as leisure centres or adult social care, is still the sum the local authority will be contributing.

Most of the money, £3.3m, will come from the government's Department For Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), according to documents prepared for a meeting of the council's most senior committee, called Policy and Resources, on February 15. The document also revealed that a further £535,000 will come from the Environment Agency.

In March, a Wirral Council spokesperson said: "The flood alleviation scheme in West Kirby has been years in planning and has been the subject of at least two public consultation exercises over that time.

"The construction of a physical barrier – a wall – along the length of the promenade is the preferred option as it is the most cost effective way of protecting lives, property and the public realm in West Kirby from severe flooding over the next 100 years."