Hildenborough

I was driving from, uh, Leicester Square, London, over to Kent, to Tonbridge.

Uh, generally stopping off in a lay-by somewhere and getting a hour and a half, couple of hours sleep before I moved off to, uh, Hildenborough, where, Hildenborough, where the stations, uh, for Mercury were.

And what is it like to launch a radio station?

Um, it's nice to be a part of it, and it's nice to ...

The work is intended to help communities deal with the growing risk posed by climate change, including more frequent severe storms and extremely wet winters.

New flood defences have also been built in Hildenborough, including a 98-metre embankment, a new pumping station on the Horden Stream and a sheet-piled wall.

Together, the measures are designed to prevent the River Medway backing up into the town without increasing flood risk elsewhere.

Councillor Jamie Henderson is KCC Cabinet Member for Environment, Coastal Regeneration and Public Health.

Flooding is a huge concern across Tunbridge and Moorland because our very geography is shaped by the River Medway and its tributaries.

Whether it's the town of Tunbridge, communities like Hildenborough or downstream through Golden Green and into East Peckham, what we have seen are communities that are affected by rising floodwaters during periods of heavy rain and it's important that we're able to defend our town and the villages from the worst impacts of floodwater.

And obviously a lot of money has gone into this.

Do you think residents appreciate the amount of money and amount of time that has gone into sorting this out for them?

that we've been doing expands the flood storage area so that it can store 7 million cubic metres of water.

And just to give you a sense of what that means, that's close to 3,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.

So this will play a really key role in helping to protect and make communities more resilient in the Tonbridge and Hildenborough area.

I haven't always planned for this being kind of in the woodwork, but