WORK on construction of a Kendal flood relief scheme that has been in the pipeline since 1999 is on target to start next spring, reports Michaela Robinson-Tate.

The long-awaited Stock Beck scheme is still being planned more than four years after the floods which ruined homes in parts of Lowther Park, Silverdale Drive and a small area of Calder Drive in January 1999. The scheme is designed to prevent similar flooding occurring again.

Environmental experts at South Lakeland District Council, who are carrying out the scheme, have applied for planning consent for work at Rusland Park/Silverdale Drive.

The plan includes a flood storage reservoir in a field north of Sedbergh Road, and the latest planning application is for work on the parcels of land to the south of that field under which new drainage will be constructed.

In October, work should start to reinforce or relocate gas mains, water mains and sewers under Sedbergh Road. This is so they will be strong enough to withstand tunnelling work.

SLDC environmental protection manager Mark Richardson said: "Tunnelling inevitably causes a slight amount of vibration and some of the services under there are not well protected. There's a possibility, albeit slight, of damage or rupture in that area so they are being reinforced so our tunnel will not cause any damage."

The tunnelling will only extend to 27 metres.

Next spring or summer, work on the Stock Beck scheme proper will begin and will include an impounding dam; pipework from Whitbarrow Close all the way down to the field; pipework from Lowther Park under Silverdale Drive, and pipework down Sedbergh Road which will enable Old Sedbergh Road to be drained into the field.

Mr Richardson said although there had been a lot of rain recently, the ground was not already saturated, and properties were therefore not at risk as they were in 1999.

May 15, 2003 16:30