FOLLOWING the events of Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis, we know all too well that for some communities the clean-up work will last much longer.

As the Environment Agency’s flood risk manager for Kendal it feels a very fitting time to update our local communities on our ongoing and planned work in the Kendal area.

When we look at building a flood scheme, our primary aim is to protect homes and businesses from flooding, and we design the best possible scheme that’s the most technically feasible, environmentally sustainable and economically viable, after consultation with the public.

The heavy rain and flooding experienced during Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis is a timely reminder how important it is to better protect our local area. Given a few extra hours of rain and slightly higher river levels, many people could have had a much worse experience. People in Burneside, currently waiting for the floods scheme and who unfortunately did flood during Storm Ciara, would have likely been better protected once these new defences are in place.

Our defences protected 6,000 properties from flooding across Cumbria. People also have longer to prepare and act when flooding is imminent.

We can never fully protect people against future flooding; however, once all three phases are complete, the proposed £76 million Kendal flood risk management scheme will reduce flood risk to 1,437 homes and 1,151 businesses in Kendal, Burneside, Staveley and Ings to a one per cent chance of flooding in any given year.

We are designing our flood scheme using a catchment-based approach, where we look at the Kent catchment as a whole to assess the flood risk and use a combination of methods to best protect people and property from flooding, including natural flood management where possible.

Due to the size and scale of this project, the Environment Agency has split the construction of the flood schemes into phases. We are splitting the overall scheme into three phases similar to the Carlisle flood scheme currently under way.

Even as a stand-alone project, upon completion of phase one, homes and businesses will be better protected against future flooding. This will be improved upon completion of all three phases, when flood risk will be reduced to 1,437 homes and 1,151 business across Kendal, Burneside, Staveley and Ings.

Due to the nature of the Kent catchment, natural flood management won’t work on its own and needs to be used in combination with other, more engineered solutions. We are investing £800,000 in a number of locations in the Kent catchment that will demonstrate how natural flood management can contribute to the longer term management of flooding.

When building new flood defences, we have to balance the needs of people, the delicate natural environment and a river catchment as a whole. The River Kent is designated as a Special Area of Conservation and Site of Special Scientific Interest and therefore the environment is a key consideration in our designs. We would not put forward any scheme unless we are confident the ecological impacts have been adequately addressed.

Our designs for phase one include improving five hectares of habitat and recreation space in Kendal, plus 50 hectares of peatland restoration at the top of the catchment. We will replant at least six trees for every tree we remove, totalling more than 3,666 trees. We are also looking at where we can include public art. As part of phases two and three we hope to deliver even more environmental improvements.

We are currently carrying out data gathering work in Kendal to confirm items such as the extent of tree roots, location of utilities etc, with construction of phase one due to start this summer. Alongside, we are also continuing with our detailed designs for phases two and three which will be submitted to the planning committee in spring 2021 once these are complete.

Although the ultimate decision of planning permission is with the local planning committee, we are confident we can work through any concerns raised and design the best possible scheme.

We welcome public feedback on our designs so please do contact us with any thoughts or feedback. Please visit www.thefloodhub/kendal for further information and to view our latest newsletter.

We will be running further public consultation events throughout autumn to gather formal feedback when designs have been progressed further. We will also be opening a new public information centre so will let people know when this is open.

Feel free to contact us at any time with questions, thoughts or comments on KendalFRMS@environment-agency.gov.uk or 03708 506 506.

Stewart Mounsey

Flood risk manager, Environment Agency