Category Archives: News

Leisure on the Deben Estuary Survey

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What’s your view on how the river can be best enjoyed by everyone? Please complete the Survey we have created and let us know 

Deadline 31st March 2025.

The recent rejection of the commercial hire of personal watercraft on the Deben Estuary (a decision that does not affect the private use of personal watercraft) has brought into focus several issues regarding the use of the estuary.

We have constructed a survey that concentrates on everyone’s use of the estuary and in particular how its leisure users and wildlife can best coexist.

Please take a few minutes to answer the questions in the survey at https://forms.gle/syjXdAfPABNzGVVW7. It has been distributed by the Deben Estuary Partnership to 40 organisations and individuals with connections to the estuary: please do send it on to anyone with a connection to the Deben so it circulates as widely as possible to interested parties.

We’ll use the findings to help steer our engagement with local councils and authorities.

The survey will close on 31st March, and we will aim to publish our results on the River Deben Association website around three 3 weeks from then.

RDA Journal Update

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Journal articles are usually published around 5pm on the day. Here are the most recent:

The published articles can be found here.

To receive automatic notifications for News or Journal articles please either enter your email in the ‘subscribe to posts’ form or click the ‘Follow us‘ button at the end of individual articles.

Lord Deben – Patron of the River Deben Association

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The River Deben Association (RDA) is delighted to announce that Lord Deben to become its patron from October 2024, supporting the association in its efforts to understand and protect the River Deben and conserve it for all users.

The RDA invited Lord Deben to support the association as patron following a very successful talk last autumn titled ‘Net Zero – where are we now?’ on climate change and why it matters, and we are honoured that he has accepted the invitation. Many of our more than 900 members attended Lord Deben’s thought-provoking talk and for those who missed it a report is available on the RDA website.

Continue reading →

In talk hosted by River Deben Association, Lord Deben urges Suffolk voters to hold their politicians to account over climate change

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WOODBRIDGE, 27 OCTOBER 2023 — Lord Deben, the former chair of the UK Climate Change Committee, and former Conservative Secretary of State for the Environment and MP for Suffolk Coastal, on Thursday urged voters to hold politicians to account over climate change during a talk in Woodbridge for the River Deben Association (RDA). Continue reading →

“Otter Spotting” Project

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In autumn 2022 the RDA Committee initiated conversations with the Suffolk Otter Group and Penny Hemphill (independent ecologist) regarding the merits of starting an “otter spotting” project on the River Deben. This was agreed in principle with a view to being able to use the data as an indicator of river health. The RDA invested in 2 specialist wildlife cameras to kick the project off. The funding for one of the cameras was very generously donated by way of legacy from the late Gwen Nelson and for which we are most grateful. The Deben Magazine (Autumn 2023) has a short article about the project so far and we are pleased to share some footage of some of the initial findings. Updates to follow!