Villagers hope more can be done to stop flooding
Maidstone council spending £50,000, but fear remains
People living in a flood-hit village say they still live in fear for their homes and businesses despite Maidstone council committing £50,000 to further prevention projects.
Homes in Yalding had to be evacuated on Christmas Day in 2013 after hundreds of families woke to find their homes flooded.
The Medway Flood Partnership (MFP) was established to bring different organisations together to address ways of mitigating risks to life and homes. At a meeting of the Maidstone Borough Council policy and resources committee last month, councillors agreed to commit £50,000, to be matched by South East Rivers Trust (SERT) funding of £180,000, to carry out three further natural flood management projects. But despite the further investment, people in Yalding fear it is still not enough to prevent a repeat of the devastation in 2013. Linda Boone lives just off the
High Street and was forced from her home for around six months following the Christmas Day floods, and she says people locally want more done to stop it happening again.
She said: “I know they have been doing some work, but obviously we have flooded twice so
we would like to see more being done.
“We had a couple of feet of water through the house on both occasions and it is horrible, your whole home is ruined.
“Every time it rains for a long period of time you think, is it going to happen again?”
Fellow resident Nigel Franks agreed with the calls for greater investment in flood defences. “It is a worry sometimes,” he said. “I know the government and council say they have spent money, but we don’t see anything being done and I just wonder if it’s going to work.”