The East Suffolk Internal Drainage Board (ESIDB) announces positive funding news.

The ESIDB announced today that the Environment Agency (EA) has approved a major funding contribution to improving flood defences in the estuary.

As you are no doubt aware, The Alde & Ore Estuary Trust (AOET) has been working with the ESIDB to get government funding towards enhancing our river flood defences. Your donations have funded the ESIDB to research and apply for government grants to make our flood defences more resilient and robust against future, inevitable, storm surges.

Today, we have received the news that the EA has agreed to give £11.9 million towards Phase 1 of the work ( Phase 1 is largely the Upper Estuary from Snape to Aldeburgh town marsh). This is a fantastic piece of news and will enable the ESIDB to begin works immediately. At the same time we will be working with the ESIDB to pursue funding for Phase 2 - the Lower Estuary.

This news means that work can start straight away. The ESIDB estimates that Phase 1 will be a four year project. The next year will be spent on detailed planning and getting all the licences consents and permissions that will be needed. Construction of the new river walls will start in 2024. The benefits of doing this work are significant in protecting homes, businesses, roads and wildlife habitats for generations to come.

As you also probably know, the grants from government will not cover the total cost of the work needed on the whole estuary. The gap between what we get and what we will need to spend will be filled by the AOET. And we will in turn get this money from other sources such as foundations but especially from the generosity of our supporters like you. The funding gap for the whole estuary project will be a significant amount of money, but we believe it can be bridged. This news reinforces our belief.

Our ability to give grants to the ESIDB has been hugely helped by the generosity of our many donors to date. For anyone who has given, helped and worked with the AOET over the last few years, this news is a wonderful reward for your patience and generosity. We couldn’t have done it without you.

If you’d like to read more and to see the full details of the ESIDB announcement, just click HERE.