AN Environment Agency event to draft an emergency flooding plan for Kendal is to be held next week.

Residents and organisations in the town are being encouraged to attend the event at Kendal Town Hall on Wednesday, from 3pm to 7.30pm.

The plan would be used if the town faced another emergency like the flooding of 2004 and 2005. But Kendal has also faced flooding in recent years too. In 2009, large rainfalls were recorded in the county as the rivers, streams and becks spilled into homes and businesses. 

At the time emergency relief centres catered for hundreds of displaced people. Cockermouth and Keswick were the worst towns affected, but many other communities across Cumbria like Burneside, Backbarrow and Kendal felt the impact of the deluge.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Since these events, the EA has completed work on the Kent and Mint embankments protecting the Mintsfeet and Lakeland Business Park areas of the town

The session is looking for groups and organisations that may be able to offer help if Kendal experienced an emergency situation in the future. Help can be offered in many ways and they could include things like: co-ordinating volunteers; operating telephones; helping with catering; 4x4 driving; or tree surgery. Other types of support could be the loan of equipment, local knowledge and making premises available.

South Lakes MP Tim Farron, who helped secure £2 million of government cash to be used for flood defences in the Workington, Ulverston and Threlkeld areas, said: "I am urging local residents to go to this event and make sure their ideas are heard.  In recent years Kendal and our surrounding villages have dealt with flooding and I am working to secure funding to introduce mitigation measures but we can do something as a community and I hope by getting lots of people together we can create local solutions as well as capital projects.”