A new wetland site, which could see 15 million litres of floodwater stored under fields in Marden, could help prevent future flood threats around Tonbridge.

The £15,000 project will not only help ease the pressure from flooding hotspots such as Yalding and Collier Street, but will also create a sanctuary for wildlife.

VIDEO: The wetland area has been revealed.

Work to produce the four-acre wetland site has begun and will hopefully be finished in less than two weeks.

The farmland is owned by Peter Hall. He decided to make four-acres of his site into wetland.

However, in order for the system to be successful, more farmland in Kent needs to be used in the same way.

Mr Hall, said: "You're getting bangs for your buck, you're delivering public good by hopefully reducing the flooding potential.

"You're also massively helping the wildlife by taking out the silt loading out and helping the valuable river systems where ecology is excellent.

"An area like this in the Low Weald with woodland and hedgerows and so on around it will provide amazing habitats for birds which are nesting and breeding."

In December 2013, heavy rainfall left 205 flooded homes in Yalding, 102 in Tonbridge and 12 in Maidstone.

Yalding was one of the worst-hit villages in the country - with 56 families having to spend Christmas in temporary accommodation.

The system will work by essentially flooding Mr Hall's four-acre piece of land in Marden when there's excess water.

Being in the middle of the Low Weald flood plain, water will be diverted from rivers onto the lower lying farmland and flood that instead of neighbouring villages.

It will hold the water there whilst the main river system drains out and then the water on the flooded land will gently drain back into the river system.

A benefit to this is that instead of the silt-laden water arriving at one place in a huge flood, the water will drop the silt when it drains from the river into the wetland, and will then rejoin the river as clean water.

This is better for wildlife and stops silt going back into the main river system.

Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and The Weald says it's been a long time coming: "I'm absolutely delighted it's a brilliant idea and I think it will have a big impact on how we deal with local flooding.

"Especially for the people who every winter worry. Many of the people in Yalding have been through floods on several different occasions and we don't want it happening again.

"It could - if it works the way we think it could - become a model for other parts of the country too."