£42m Flood Scheme Opens to Protect 1,870 Homes in Tonbridge and Hildenborough

A major £42 million flood scheme protecting Tonbridge and Hildenborough has officially opened, three years after work began, cutting flood risk for 1,870 homes and 575 businesses along the River Medway.

At the scheme's heart is an expanded Leigh Flood Storage Area, which first opened in 1982 and has been used 75 times since to hold back flood water - including, the Environment Agency says, through some of the most severe storms of the last 40 years. The expansion raises the maximum water level the control structure can hold by 55 centimetres, increasing its capacity by around 23% to roughly 7.4 million cubic metres, enough to fill about 2,880 Olympic swimming pools. Three new 12.5-tonne gates were manufactured off-site, welded together and lifted into place by a 300-tonne crane, alongside new lifting and electrical systems, easier-to-maintain moving platforms, and an eel pass so the protected species can still get through.

Hildenborough's flood risk comes mainly from the River Medway backing up into the Hawden Stream - the cause of flooding that hit around 180 Hildenborough homes in 2013. The new scheme there includes a 98-metre embankment across the floodplain, a new pumping station on the Hawden Stream, and a sheet-piled wall, designed to stop that backing-up without pushing the flood risk onto anywhere else.

The work was funded mainly by the Environment Agency, with Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council contributing £500,000 and Kent County Council also providing support. Council Leader Cllr Matt Boughton said the borough had "also seen the devastation to homes, businesses and communities caused by flooding" over the years, while the Environment Agency's Simon Curd said the upgrade means the 1982 structure "can continue reducing flood risk for the next 50 years." Source: Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council