Outside The Wall

The “temporary” fencing that has closed off one of the lanes along New Road in Kendal for the last few months has finally been removed, revealing the wall that has been built behind it. A wall that now fully encloses the common land that adjoins the river. Now, there was a perfectly good wall along the river between Gooseholme Bridge and Aynam Bridge, but there was a gap where there is a slipway down to the river. During Storm Desmond in 2015, water came up the slipway and flooded New Road. And I’d have thought that the flood defence work would have just involved putting some sort of moveable barrier at the top of said slipway. But it seems it was necessary to build a completely separate new wall that now effectively blocks all views of the river and the common land when travelling along New Road. I’m sure there’s a reason for it. Just as there was a reason for cutting down all the trees on Aynam Road. I’m still to hear satisfactory explanations as to why all this work was necessary and why it is still ongoing ten years after the floods - and three years after it was promised the works would be finished!