A £50,00 project is underway at Oughtershaw, near Buckden, to help improve wildlife habitat and reduce the impact of flooding.

The joint project is being carried out by Yorkshire Water and the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust (YDRT) and is being paid for out of a £50,000 investment from Yorkshire Water’s Biodiversity Action Fund.

The project will see the construction of three earth bunds which it is aimed will reduce and slow down peak flows of floodwater.

Bunds – earth walls designed to contain floodwater – act as leaky dams which hold back surges in steam flow and allow water in a controlled way to move through the dam.

This, combined with tree planting, ponds, scrapes and new wetland habitat will increase the land’s capacity to absorb floodwater and release it slowly.

Ben Aston, from Yorkshire Water said: “We are delighted to be able to help the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust. Helping wildlife and the habitat is extremely important to us and to be able to reduce flooding at the same time, makes this a very exciting project.”

Dan Turner, YDRT senior project officer for Wharfedale, said: “We are extremely grateful for Yorkshire Water’s help in funding Oughtershaw. The ‘demonstration area’ will play a vital role in showing farmers and other landowners what could be achieved to tackle flooding problems using sustainable methods and at relatively modest cost.”

And, he added: “This type of action in the upper part of river catchments, such as Oughtershaw, could play a big part in reducing the impact of damaging floods further downstream.”

Yorkshire Water manages the collection, treatment and distribution of water across the county and supplies about 1.24 billion litres of drinking water to more than five million people every day. Between 2015 and 2020, the company plans to put £3.8 billion back into the local economy.