The Environment Agency is progressing work on the £28.5 million Holderness Drain Flood Alleviation Scheme in East Hull with the creation of a new “aquagreen” which will see thousands of trees planted as part of the flood defence project.

The project to plant thousands of tree and hedgerow seedlings has started at Castlehill, East Hull, to create new woodland habitat for local wildlife.

Seven hectares of woodland and over 5km of hedgerow will be created as part of the large aquagreen project that will store floodwater and reduce flood risk.

The ‘aquagreen’ is the second phase of the £28.5 million Holderness Drain Flood Alleviation Scheme, which includes construction of the new East Hull Pumping Station.

Construction work started work on the new pumping station in East Hull in May 2020 . This is located on the Holderness Drain just above the point where it flows into the Humber estuary.

Photo: Progress with construction of the pumping station walls in October 2022

The Agency currently expects the scheme to be finished by the end of June/early July 2023.

Together both components of the scheme will provide a long term and more sustainable approach to managing water in the Holderness Drain catchment.

The partnership project is being led by the Environment Agency, supported by partners Hull City Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, National Highways and Hull and East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Local Growth Fund Programme.

Homes in North Carr and Sutton are currently at risk of flooding from water in the Holderness and Sutton Cross drains after heavy rain.

The Holderness Drain is a man-made river channel. When it becomes full, water flows into Sutton Cross Drain, overwhelming the local drainage system and increasing the risk of flooding for homes in the area. This area narrowly avoided disaster in November 2019 when other parts of Hull were affected by flooding.

Residents and local community groups have been invited to take part in the tree planting programme to create 7 hectares of woodland habitat, and over 5 kilometres of new hedgerow, as part of the project to create an aquagreen to store floodwater east of the city.

Tree species such as field maple, downy birch, English oak, and black alder are being planted along with different species of willow for hedges and field rose, dog rose, guelder rose and blackthorn and hawthorn to create scrubland.

The planting programme started this week with a group of 20 volunteers planting hundreds of trees over three days.

Andrew Barron, flood risk advisor at the Environment Agency, said:

“Woodland habitat holds high biological value and the new hedgerow planted across the site will promote a green corridor. We also plan on converting some of the arable land into open grassland which also has great biodiversity value and will be excellent habitat for many conservation priority species, such as skylarks, barn owls, and butterflies.

“We had a great response from volunteers locally and will be doing more planting this month as part of our ambitions to create new woodland habitat as part of our flood defence work to better protect homes from the risk of flooding.”

Species will be allowed to naturally recolonise areas to create a natural woodland with scrub and grassland fringes to support a diverse make up of species and is expected to reach maturity over 15 to 20 years.

The Environment Agency is also working with local organisations to explore possibilities for an archaeological project as part of the scheme.

Plans for the overall aquagreen project scheme were approved a year ago, and construction work on the project is now halfway through.

The aquagreen will reduce flood risk to over 800 properties and key infrastructure in east Hull.

Once the scheme is completed, the aquagreen will be a versatile green space which will store excess water during a flood and then slowly release it back into the drainage system after the peak of the flood has passed.