Major Flood Protection Boost for Hartlepool as £25m Greatham Scheme is Approved
£25m Greatham Flood Defence Scheme Gets Green Light as Major Works Set for 2027
29th Sep 2026
A £25 million flood alleviation scheme on the outskirts of Hartlepool has been given the green light, with work expected to begin early next year.
Hartlepool Borough Council has granted planning permission for the Environment Agency’s Greatham North East Flood Alleviation Scheme, a major project intended to strengthen ageing flood defences, tackle coastal erosion and protect important industrial infrastructure around Greatham Creek and Greenabella Marsh.
Construction is expected to begin in early 2027 and take approximately two years to complete, with the Environment Agency saying the new defences are intended to help manage flood risk in the area for the next 50 years.
The project forms part of the wider £30 million Tees Tidelands Programme, which is seeking to strengthen flood resilience across the Tees Estuary while restoring habitats which have gradually disappeared as the area became increasingly industrialised.
Ageing flood defences to be replaced
At the heart of the project will be the construction of a new 1.5-kilometre flood embankment around Greenabella Marsh.
Once the new defence is completed, sections of the existing Greenabella embankment will be deliberately breached, allowing tidal water back into parts of the marsh while the new embankment provides the principal line of flood protection.
Repair work will also be carried out on the existing Greatham Creek embankment, with the Environment Agency saying that structural investigations found both the Greatham Creek and Greenabella embankments to be in poor condition.
Earlier Environment Agency procurement documents went further, warning that the existing defences had developed on a piecemeal basis using non-standard construction methods and that a breach of either asset could have serious consequences for the estuary.
Clay excavated locally for new defences
Rather than bringing all of the material onto the site from elsewhere, its said that clay for the new embankment will be excavated from nearby Marsh House Farm, which is owned by the Environment Agency.
Once the clay has been removed, the excavated area is intended to become a new saline lagoon, providing additional wildlife habitat. Earlier plans for the project indicated that around 129,000 cubic metres of clay could be required for construction of the new flood embankment.
Protecting major industry around the Tees
While the scheme carries significant environmental benefits, its flood-protection role is particularly important because of the industrial sites and infrastructure situated around the Tees Estuary.
The Environment Agency says the £25 million investment will provide improved protection to nationally important industry and infrastructure, while reducing the wider flood risk to Hartlepool and helping combat coastal erosion.
Previous schemes have already seen millions of pounds invested nearby, with a £16 million Port Clarence and Greatham South project, completed in 2018, improving protection for around 350 homes and 32 businesses while creating almost 50 hectares of wildlife habitat.
The latest £25 million project effectively represents another major stage in efforts to make the northern side of Greatham Creek more resilient.
Saltmarsh and mudflats to return
There will also be a significant environmental transformation, with Large areas of saltmarsh and intertidal mudflat expected to be restored as tidal waters are allowed back into land previously reclaimed for industry.
The Environment Agency estimates that less than 10% of the Tees Estuary's original intertidal habitat remains, following approximately two centuries of industrial development, where its claimed restored mudflats and saltmarsh should provide habitat for wildlife while also capturing carbon.
The Environment Agency's project manager Joe Reed said the scheme would improve the area's resilience to a changing climate while providing new wildlife habitat and improving biodiversity.
Another major Greatham investment
The announcement comes just weeks after completion of another Environment Agency project nearby, where, In August, the agency announced completion of the £4.5 million Greatham Marsh Restoration Scheme, which restored the historic course of Greatham Beck and allowed tidal water into the marsh for the first time in more than 200 years.
Contractors are expected to move onto the site in early 2027.
Once completed around two years later, its claimed the project will leave the Greatham area with substantially modernised flood defences — replacing infrastructure whose origins stretch back to Hartlepool and Teesside's industrial expansion more than a century ago.
