A PIONEERING flood-prevention project at Pickering has picked up two prizes at the Research Innovation Sustainability & Enterprise (RISE) awards at the Leeds Sustainability Institute.

The Slowing the Flow project, which was heralded for protecting Pickering during the Boxing Day 2015 floods, was handed both the Vision and Sustainability prize and the overall chairman's prize at the ceremony at the Met hotel in Leeds.

The RISE awards celebrate and reward the best initiatives in construction and engineering.

A spokesman from organisers Leeds Beckett University said that for the Vision and Sustainability prize, "the judges were unanimous on the winner".

"The project demonstrates how communities can come together to not only protect their land and property, but also bring significant benefits to those downstream. The community have taken a whole catchment approach to tackle the impact of climate change that is now upon us," the judges said.

'Slowing the Flow' is a flood prevention project which involves stopping water from flashing off the uplands, using a clay dam, reforestation, moorland management and other comparatively inexpensive measures.

After the winter floods, the scheme was highly praised by the Environment Audit Commission (EAC) flood review, as an affordable solution for numerous other catchments.

Mike Potter, Ryedale councillor and chairman of the Pickering Civic Society, said: "The lessons learned from this pilot project are being used to inform other flood hit communities across Yorkshire and beyond. Already, natural flood management measures have been planned for the upper catchment of the badly hit Calder Valley by the Calder Catchment Flood Studies Network (CCFSN), a community group comprising people with diverse skills relevant to flood protection.

"They are currently working on a cohesive catchment-wide plan with the EA and Calderdale Council."