CUMBRIA’S best-loved landscapes could be subtly altered over the next decade to ease the risk of major flooding.

The £275million worth of damage caused by last year’s floods has prompted the Environment Agency (EA) to consider restoring meanders to Lake District rivers.

The idea is to slow down the time it takes for water to work its way through the river system, easing the pressure on urban areas such as Keswick, which were so adversely affected by the November floods.

Upland and fell areas around the Langdale Valley and the River Kent are among potential locations which could be changed, although the main crux of the work will be around towns such as Keswick, Cockermouth and Egremont.

The Environment Agency wants to work closely with farmers and other landowners to help provide a solution because rivers were ‘straightened’ in the 1960s to help increase the amount of farmland available. During this decade drainage channels were also cut in the fellsides to improve ‘sterile’ land, which increased the flow of water in the valleys. These are also being looked at to slow the run-off.

David Brown, a technical specialist in flood risk management at EA, said that the river strategy would go alongside other flood preventative measures such as sandbags and flood barriers.

“We’re looking at the flood risk management for the whole catchment and further down-stream. Once you get a straight river it’s like putting water on a motorway but if it meanders then this can potentially attentuate the flow of water.

“This work wouldn’t have prevented the 2009 events from happening because that was such a major event, but smaller events could benefit from these works, although conventional flood prevention methods still need to be managed.

“It’s at an early stage but it is important to say that this will be in partnership with landowners.

“It would be a partnership approach and we’ve been discussing this with the NFU and putting it on the table.

“It’s a very long-term view how this would look and affect the Lake District character. It’s not something that’s going to happen just like that.”

The price of the scheme and who pays for what has not yet been decided, added Mr Brown, who also said that demonstrations and trials showing the impact meandering rivers have on the land were in the pipeline.