Debenham

Debenham is a large village in central Mid Suffolk that has a population of c.2,500 people and with c. 1,200 residential properties. While there are several new ‘estates’ that have sprung up over the years, the village core remains unchanged from how it looked centuries ago. There is a large conservation area in the centre of the old village.

The village is well served with shops and facilities with a large East of England Co-Op that also comprises the village Post Office. There is a Primary School with associated Pre School and a High School in the village which attracts many out of catchment students. Both schools already utilise solar panel energy. Debenham Leisure Centre, run by a local charity, is situated next to the High School and serves as a key part of Mid Suffolk’s infrastructure.

The Debenham Green Team are an independent body that assists the parish council with green issues. We recognise that the parish council are heavily involved in various important exercises, e.g. Neighbourhood Plan review, Emergency Plan review and Flood Resilience review, that limits their capacity to be involved with green issues at the current time.

The Green Team are focused on issues that we believe are important to the residents of Debenham and the surrounding areas. Our community energy focus has been on:

• Half-price insulation products to be available for Debenham residents via a scheme organised by the Suffolk Climate Change Partnership.
• Insulating older properties in the conservation area – always a difficult area as the ‘heritage’ view often creates issues with any proposed solutions. Progress is being made in this area with two successful conversions in the last 12 months.
• An ongoing investigation into the feasibility of a 2MW solar installation on land to the northeast of Debenham is currently underway. We are currently working with the Community Energy Fund to explore the possibilities this proposal brings to the village.
• Coupled with this investigation is another option that looks at the available roof space in Debenham that is suitable for solar panels. We are pleased to note that Debenham Leisure Centre have recently installed a 65Kw solar system on their sports hall roof. Suitable roof spaces will be identified and with assistance from MSDC, developments initiated where possible. It is of interest that we note that Debenham has a very high take up of domestic solar panel installations with some 11% of the properties in the village having solar panels on their roofs. The national average is 5%.

In addition, the Green Team undertakes/supports:

• A monthly recycling event in the High Street to allow residents to recycle materials that cannot be put in the domestic recycling bin, e.g. tetrapaks, water filters, pens, corks, make up containers, dental products, plastic flowerpots etc.
• A bi-annual village wide litter pick is organised, with the litter collected disposed of by Mid Suffolk District Council, Public Realm team – many people litter pick their own area on a more regular basis. More than 2 tonnes of litter have been removed by the team’s efforts.
• Planning for a community nature reserve is underway.
• The building of hedgehog highways within the village.
• A DGT run community cycling club that encourages the use of bikes around the village by running bike clinics, bike rides and confidence building courses.
• Monthly river sampling at fixed points in the village to monitor the levels of e.coli, ammonia, nitrates and phosphates in the water. This exercise links directly to the ‘citizen’s science project’ for the river Deben that is being co-ordinated by the Woodbridge Climate Centre and University College Suffolk.

The Debenham Green Team is constantly evolving and will pick up on any environmental issues that it feels it can assist with. Green Energy is clearly an important part of the scenario, particularly as our new government seem to be pushing that agenda forward at some pace.