REPRESENTATIVES of the Save the Heart of Kendal group made their presence felt at the meeting of the North West Regional Flood and Coast Committee at Kendal Town Hall this week.

One of the group, which opposes the multi-million pound flood defence scheme proposed for the town, dressed as a kingfisher and another as an otter in an effort to get their point across.

The organisation claims both species’ will have their habitats threatened by the project.

Save the Heart of Kendal have stressed they are fully supportive of a flood defence scheme but are unhappy with the proposed scheme, phase one of which has already been passed by South Lakeland District Council’s planning committee, as they feel viable alternatives have not been fully explored.

They also stressed that they were not protesting at the meeting but merely trying to raise awareness of their standpoint by handing out leaflets and factsheets to delegates and members of the public

The group were invited as observers at the meeting, where officials from the Environment Agency, who are piloting the project, were also present.

Speakers at the meeting included The North West Centre of Coastal Excellence, United Utilities, Cumbria Wildlife Trust.

The Kendal flood scheme itself was was not on the agenda but there was an overwhelming theme of natural flood management.

The group said that in the meeting there was a strong focus on natural flood management (NFM), nature-based schemes, and community involvement to “slow the flow.”

They said one group, trialling NFM in West Cumbria, called for DEFRA to step up and communicate the positives of NFM schemes to the farming community. Others explained the need for a “catchment-wide systemic change”.

“It was heartening to see examples of how the world is moving away from hard-engineering schemes,” said Save the Heart of Kendal in a statement.

They added that they now have more than 5,600 signatures for their petition demanding a review of the scheme.