WE DID IT!!!!! WE DID IT!!!!! WE DID IT!!!!!
10/04/23
Press release
Save the Deben founders, Caroline Page and Ruth Leach, are thrilled to announce that following recent public consultation, their application for the Waldringfield stretch of the River Deben has received designated Bathing Water Status and will be listed as such from today
“ Waldringfield will be the only the third inland water site -and the first stretch of tidal estuary in the UK - to receive this bathing water status. The consultation demonstrated usage of 106 bathers daily, (which including swimmers and children bathing or paddling in the water), over the 20 days counted during last summer’s official bathing season. As a direct consequence the water will be monitored for water quality by the environment weekly during next summer’s official bathing season ( which is May 15th until the 30th September), “ says Woodbridge County Councillor Caroline Page, a longtime wild swimmer.
What will it mean?
"The Environment Agency will prepare an initial bathing water profile then will test the water for pollutants such as E.Coli while Suffolk County Council will be responsible for providing this information to the public. Signs at the site will also display realtime water status ( excellent, good, sufficient or poor)
This is excellent news for east Suffolk's river environment and water users alike” says Caroline
"In 2022 the Save The Deben’ campaign submitted DBWS applications to Defra for two sites along the tidal estuary: at Woodbridge and Waldringfield which are approx. 3 miles apart. The two applications were because of the logistical issues of a tidal estuary. I am obviously very happy that Waldringfield has achieved bathing water status, but, I am deeply disappointed that we have not yet been able to provide the same protection for the hundreds of Woodbridge residents and visitors who make use of our entire reach of the river Deben each summer However the bather count average of 58 swimmers a day during the 2022 Summer heatwave peak season shows that it is still clearly a bathing area, from the teenagers and Sup users at Wilford Bridge to the Sea Scouts at the Tide Mill and the Deben Bluetits swimming from the Town Steps.”
Ruth Leach, a swimmer and kayaker, welcomes this designation ‘Hours of hard work, bather counts, public consultation, lobbying of support and paperwork have paid off and now we will turn our attention to Woodbridge, upriver, where there is a large population of recreational river users as well as the outlet sites for the two sewage treatment works. Swimmers are swimming in areas where CSO’s can take place and where treated sewage is draining in to the river.’
The full application for Woodbridge included 1158 pledges of support as well as letters of support from the parish, town, district and county councils, and national stakeholders such as Anglian Water and the National Trust.
Save the Deben's campaign to achieve designated bathing water status along the estuary is part of a strategic environmental initiative to secure ongoing water quality monitoring along the River Deben., to focus the spotlight on the performance of the Water Company Anglian Water, and to secure water quality testing that will complement that which is being provided by the local Citizen Science projects and the water company.
Anglian Water has strongly supported the successful application and has pledged support for the efforts at Woodbridge to resubmit their application in October 2023.
Angela Soames, Co-founder of the Waldringfield based wild swimming group, ‘Deben Bluetits’ adds ‘Deben Bluetits are delighted at this news. It means that the river will have to be cleaned up, which will not only benefit us as wild swimmers, but all river users and more importantly the wildlife and river environment.”
Thank you to everyone who supported this application! Now to tackle Woodbridge.
