UK Kent £42 Million Flood Defence Scheme Completed

en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Environment Agency has announced that the Leigh Flood Storage Area expansion and Hildenborough flood defence scheme in Kent have officially been brought into operation. The total investment in design and construction was approximately £42 million, and upon completion, the scheme will reduce flood risk for 1,870 homes and 575 businesses in the Tonbridge and Hildenborough areas.

The Leigh Flood Storage Area is located along the River Medway between Leigh and Penshurst. The original facility consisted of an earth embankment approximately 1.3 kilometres long and about 5 metres high, together with a control structure fitted with 3 steel gates. This round of works has raised the maximum storage level at the control structure by 55 centimetres, increasing the storage area's capacity by approximately 23%, and it can now store approximately 7.4 million cubic metres of floodwater.

The expansion works replaced all 3 original control gates. The first new gate was installed in autumn 2024, the middle gate was lifted into place in May 2025, and the final north-side gate was installed in November 2025, followed by the connection of power supply, cables and control systems. Construction was commissioned by the Environment Agency in 2022 and carried out by VolkerStevin.

The Hildenborough flood defence scheme involved the simultaneous construction of new flood embankments, pumping facilities and flood walls. Publicly available information shows that these include approximately 98 metres of embankment, a new pumping station on Hawden Stream and steel sheet pile flood walls, used to control the backflow of River Medway floodwater into local low-lying areas.

Of the project funding, approximately £36,616,500 came from the Flood Defence Grant in Aid, Kent County Council contributed £2.5 million, and the remaining funding came from Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council and regional economic partnership bodies. The Environment Agency estimates that the project can provide more than £155 million in flood defence benefits to downstream communities.

The original Leigh Flood Storage Area was completed in 1982. As of summer 2026, the facility had been activated a total of 75 times. Following the expansion, the Environment Agency will continue to monitor river basin conditions and weather forecasts through a 24-hour duty system, and operate the control gates according to flood risk.