Dee Estuary expansion plans to be announced

Dec 9 2009 Birkenhead News

PLANS to expand the conservation areas on the Dee Estuary are expected to be announced soon by the Government.

The estuary is a well-known area for wildlife and forms part of the Irish Sea Conservation Zone project area.

The Government has been consulting with local organisations over its plans for the estuary, including Wirral Council.

A spokeswoman for Wirral Council said: “Wirral Council is one of many organisations that the Government is consulting on the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, which will ensure clean healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas.

“The Dee Estuary is extremely important in terms of nature conservation. If the Government puts forward proposals specifically for this area, they will be carefully considered.”

Wirral South MP Ben Chapman, who has been pressing the Government for details of its plans for the Dee, said he believed it could also become a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) under new legislation.

He said that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) may soon begin consultations on the future of conservation on the Dee and including it within a MCZ.

Last week DEFRA minister Huw Irranca-Davies told Parliament: “Part of the Dee estuary has been accepted by the European Commission as a Site of Community Interest in accordance with the provisions of the Habitats Directive.”