Flooding has not moved developers from their goal of building a golf course in an 800-year-old farm.

Bury Farm, in Edgwarebury Lane, Edgware, is currently under 4ft of water after a torrential downpour last week.

Businessman Tony Menai-Davis has earmarked the site for a new Dye London Golf Course - but thousands have rallied together to fight the plans.

Campaigners say the recent deluge, which has turned the area into a muddy swamp, further supports their view that the farm is the wrong location for a course.

But Phillip Russell-Vick, director of developers Enplan, said: “We know exactly what goes on in times of heavy weather and we’re taking steps to ensure it won’t happen when the golf course is built.”

When building the M1, the Department of Transport struck a deal with the landowners to cover the area with the excess soil.

As a result, a pipe was laid from the motorway to an existing ditch in the farm - but in times of heavy rain it bursts and inundates the area.

To prevent this, Enplan says it will build underground storage space for excess water, which will be used to irrigate the field in the summer.

Mr Russell-Vick added: “The land will no longer flood on the surface but it will be stored underground.

“We are also going to build a series of swales and low areas, where we will store excess storm water, which will drain away naturally and freely when the ground dries out.

“This will improve the flooding situation - not exacerbate it.”

The land makes up three per cent of Edgware’s green belt, but has no protection due to a legal loophole.

Members of the Broadfields Estate Residents Association organised a petition to save the farm from closure last year, and the planning application received 1,506 objections.

Mr Menai-Davis withdrew his application for the club last month, but plans to resubmit it with extra detail in the coming months.