Falls. The scheme would have generated 1,250 MWh of electricity per year, which would have been sold to the national grid, with the profits used to fund community projects once the capital costs were repaid. A Trust was set up to manage the scheme, and a planning application was submitted to the Lake District National Park Authority in August 2009. Consent for the scheme was granted in July 2010. Because the scheme was a run-of-river scheme, the decision to sell the electricity rather than distribute it locally was taken because varying flows would have resulted in variable amounts of power being generated. Incidentally, the location plan, which was one of the documents submitted with the application, shows an old mill, which was presumably Low Bridge Mill, near the proposed location for the turbine house. For reasons that are not altogether clear, the scheme did not progress any further, and the Trust was disbanded in March 2011. Flood defence Kendal's location on the banks of the River Kent has made it liable to flooding from high river levels. The highest known level was recorded in 1898, but on 2 December 1954, the highest level of flood water since that time was recorded. Some of land in and around the town were under water, with nearly 300 houses inundated. At its peak, of water per second were flowing down the river. Kendal again suffered from flooding in 1968, and the Lancashire River Authority, who had responsibility for the river, implemented a flood defence scheme. It was designed to cope with flows up to the maximum experienced in 1954 without the town flooding, and was constructed in six phases between 1972 and 1978 at a cost of £1 million. The scheme affected of the river, from Mintsfeet in the north to Watercrook in the south. The river channel was made wider, with the width of the section between Nether Bridge and Miller Bridge being increased from to . The depth of the channel was also increased in places, and a total of of spoil was removed, which was reused to construct the base of a business park on the south side of Kendal. The deeper channel meant that the foundations of existing river walls and bridges had to be protected against erosion. Walls were protected by building concrete buttressing in front of them, which was then faced with stone. Some of the widened