East Suffolk Council gives backing to The Deben Climate Centre’s river regeneration project

A council has given its backing to a project which aims to regenerate a major river.

East Suffolk Council (ESC) is supporting the efforts of The Deben Climate Centre to deliver a an ambitious plan to regenerate the Deben for people and nature.

The Centre is a coalition of residents, academics, local community groups, charities and organisations which plan to reinvigorate the river’s Catchment through widespread community action.

Cllr Sally Noble, East Suffolk Council’s cabinet member for the environment, believes the Centre’s aims are vital and says that ESC will do all it can to help them achieve their ambitions.

“There is no time to lose,” she said. “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 of the Deben and others across the district.

“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.”

Cllr Noble added the council is working on finding the best routes for funding to provide the resources a scheme such as this requires.

The Centre’s programs to date have focused on testing water quality on the Deben and a series of lectures highlighting the local effects of climate change, the global food security crisis and the startling 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.

“This partnership marks an important step forward in equipping our local communities to respond to climate change.”

The duo added East Suffolk residents have suffered from the effects of climate-related flooding in recent years, and that their plan contains initiatives to help revive the Deben’s capacity to deal with sudden rainfall events.