The proposal:

The weir in the River Deben at Brandeston, could be removed and replaced with a series of riffles. Downstream, a mix of carefully designed riverine features, such as riffles and pools, large woody debris, riverside planting and new backwaters will be created along a 3.5 km reach of currently over-managed watercourse.  Existing aquatic and riverine habitats will be improved and new ones created, improving water quality and ecological diversity.  Fencing will be installed at specific points where we know poaching to be a problem.  The project will create and install ten in river features including back channels, channel realignment, in river features and tree planting.  Two km of stock fencing will be installed at Ufford.

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The outcome:

In the Mid Deben 650m of water meadow dyke were restored, reconnections made between the floodplain and the main rivers and improvements to fish and invertebrate refuges. Large woody debris was used to create variation in flow dynamics and improve in-channel habitats. This work took place in the Easton/Hoo area. There is potential to remove the weir in the future should permissions be granted and further scoping work was done to enable this.