Flood defences ‘to get £35m boost’
A significant hint that funding for a £35 million flood defence project has been secured was made at a public meeting.
Parliamentary hopeful Jasper Gerard announced on Monday the scheme to extend capacity at the Leigh Barrier, and build a new flood storage area on the Lower Beult, is likely to get the go-ahead.
He expects the news to be confirmed in George Osborne’s Autumn Statement on Wednesday.
Mr Gerard, Lib Dem candidate for Maidstone and Weald, told 120 people at St Peter and St Paul Church, in Yalding’s Vicarage Road: “I had a call from Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the treasury, today and he did say that next week I think we will have some news that you will be very pleased with.”
Despite the good news, the meeting also heard there is nothing that can be done short term to reduce flooding.
A previously suggested temporary wall around Yalding, which would have protected 180 out of 400 homes, was deemed unfeasible. Its risk of failure was also thought to be too high.
Further dredging of the Beult and the Medway will not go ahead as it will increase the flow of water and create issues further downstream.
Geraldine Brown, chairman of Yalding Parish Council, said: “There’s nothing else we can do. There’s no short term fix. If we want to do this it is major expenditure and major capital projects and this has to be done properly.
“There’s no quick way of doing it.”
Neil Gunn, flood risk manager for the Environment Agency (EA), said: “There’s no short term things that we can do to reduce the likelihood of flooding but there’s a lot of things we’ve been doing to decrease the impact of flooding.”
So far the EA has improved its flood warning service by redrawing boundaries, with changes brought in last month.
This means that different parts of the village will receive tailor made alerts instead of a generic one that covered the whole village and Maidstone.