The fate of three historic forts will depend on global warming.

Councillors have agreed that the Georgian fort at Cockham Reach, together with Hoo and Darnet forts, should be left to collapse into the river as water levels rise.

A report said that it is uneconomic to save Cockham, between Upnor and Hoo, even though it is more than 300 years old.

The abandonment of the heritage sites, together with managing the disappearance of areas of important beauty, farmland and salt marsh, forms part of the Government’s strategy to control flooding around London and the South East.

It will happen because of changes in global temperatures and the slow sinking of Kent into the English Channel.

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