Watts Farm visit: tackling flooding in Button Street

There have been a number of causes of the flooding that has often affected Button Street in recent years, but any solution has to include avoiding run-off from Watts Farm. The farm runs alongside Button Street from close to the A20 junction up as far as Canada Heights.

The farm manager has made major efforts to tackle the problem, and on Friday morning a KCC highways engineer and I visited to see what has been done. A large lagoon has been dug at a low-lying point quite close to the road to receive a lot of the runoff from the fields. A large bund stands between it and the road.

We also visited a large ditch (pictured) that runs alongside another field. The ditch has had its problems in the past - on one occasion, a rabbit hole that was dug near it contributed to discharges into the road - but appears to be functioning well (the overnight thunder storms and heavy rain provided a useful test of its effectiveness: water had run into the ditch but there was still plenty of capacity left).

All round, this was a very encouraging visit and the farm manager is looking at plans for further drainage close to the farm' shard surfacing, which inevitably experiences heavy runoff during periods of rainfall. This would enable the lagoon to operate as a last line of defence and to serve chiefly to receive runoff from the fields.

There are, of course, other sources of flooding in Button Street, and I will continue to work with Kent Highways to resolve them.