River Deben group gets backing from East Suffolk Council

The centre is a coalition of residents, academics, local community groups, charities and organisations which plans to regenerate the River Deben through widespread community action.

East Suffolk Council cabinet member Sally Noble. (Image: East Suffolk Council)

Sally Noble, the council's cabinet member for the environment believes that the centre’s aims are critically important and says that the district will do whatever it can to help it achieve its ambitions.

She said: “There is no time to lose, which is why we are committed to supporting the Deben Climate Centre who are already working towards restoring and protecting our unique river catchment areas.

"As a council, we want to do all we can to improve water quality and biodiversity across our district and provide support where we can for this vital project.

“We also hope that this can become a learning landscape for a new relationship between people and nature, as a template to be rolled out throughout the entire East Suffolk district.”

The centre’s programs to date have focused on testing water quality on the Deben, and several lecture series highlighting the local effects of climate change, the global food security crisis, and the loss of species and habitats.

Deben Climate founders Professor Peter Hobson and Eamonn O’Nolan said: “Ours is a radical and ambitious plan to regenerate the Deben River for people and nature and it is built on the collective will of a partnership between local people, community environment groups and other key stakeholders such as farmers and land-owners. 

“We are thrilled to work with East Suffolk Council, and we recognise that successful projects like this require the support and expertise of skilled Local Government officers and members.

"This partnership marks an important step forward in equipping our local communities to respond to Climate Change.