The Friends of the New River is part of the New River Action Group.

The New River Action Group is the overall federation of more than forty local amenity, special interest and residents' associations which jointly campaigned on the New River when it was threatened with being 'terminated' north of Enfield 20 years ago. The Friends of the New River was set up at the same time, and is the organisation which individuals rather than groups join. It was and still is an important distinction, because the flowing river today covers some 25 plus miles (37 if you include the now non-flowing parts of the old course), and the aim was that the direction of the campaign should be determined as much by the groups in the federation as by the Friends. All of the member groups had their own memberships of scores, often hundreds, occasionally a thousand plus, and many of the larger ones were and are highly influential. The river flows through their local areas and it was important that these organisations were just as much in the driving seat as the Friends of the New River.