The great and the good of Kendal marked the official completion of the new Waterside section of flood defences in the town.
Councillor Jonathan Brook, leader of Westmorland and Furness Council, Kendal Town Mayor Richard Sutton and Keith Roddy, Environment Agency Project Manager, were among those gathered at the event earlier today (March 5).
The celebratory opening took place on the banks of the River Kent outside the Waterside Café.
The Waterside section of the flood scheme, which aims to protect businesses and homes from future flooding, saw innovative self-cleaning glass panels installed as part of the main flood wall.
Mr Roddy said: “The flood scheme is for the wider community benefit.
“I know there are lots of people who were flooded that will be really pleased to see the defences in place.
“And I hope that once me and the team have left Kendal, the work that we have left behind becomes a part of the townscape.”
To mark the special occasion, the Waterside Café, which was severely affected by the scheme’s construction work at the site, hosted afternoon tea for all those who attended.
The Kendal Flood Risk Management scheme is a multi-million-pound government funded project that aims to protect more than 4,000 homes and businesses in the Kendal and Upper Kent area.
The flood scheme was launched in response to the devastating damage Storm Desmond caused to Kendal in 2015 - but some people have been critical of the flood scheme’s speed of work since it began.
“I cannot say things have progressed according to plan,” said Cllr Brook, when asked if the criticism of the scheme has been fair.
“Obviously, it is ten years since Storm Desmond, so this really should have been completed before now but for a variety of reasons, that has not been possible.”
Cllr Brook said he hoped the rest of the scheme would be completed ‘much more quickly’.
On some of the challenges faced during construction, Richard Knight, the Environment Agency’s Area Flood and Coastal Risk Manager for Cumbria, commented.
Mr Knight said: “During construction, we faced a number of challenges, working riverside over the winter months had its risks, but the most complex element was being able to identify a piling solution that would successfully drill into the rock.”
Asked about some residents’ criticism of the project, the mayor said Kendalians needed to go down to the Waterside site ‘to see what’s finished.’
The mayor said he was ‘very enthusiastic to see how the flood scheme is going to look and turn out in the years to come’.
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