Land & People reported earlier this year that a search for new homes for more than 65,000 birds has begun as part of a study into building a Severn barrage. A Government spokesman has now announced a feasibility study into the barrage to establish whether the benefits would outweigh the costs. It is claimed that a tidal barrage across the Severn Estuary would have the “breathtaking” potential to provide almost 5% of Britain’s electricity and reduce carbon dioxide emissions significantly. In operation the proposed barrage would operate like a hydroelectric dam to generate electricity, with the water being pushed in by the tide. The Barrage proposed would stretch 10 miles from Lavernock Point west of Cardiff to near Brean Down in Somerset, impounding an area of 185 square miles.

The downside is that the barrage, which is estimated to cost £15 billion, would destroy large stretches of mud-flats, saltmarshes and other habitats vital to wetland birds that spend the winter in Britain. Presently the estuary is home to some of the most valuable bird habitats in Europe �“ attracting species such as Bewick’s swan, pintail duck, shelduck, dunlin, redshank and, at risk of extinction in Britain, the curlew.

The estuary is also an important environment for fish such as lampreys, salmon, sea trout and eels. Any barrage could potentially block their migratory routes along the Severn. The study, which will take some two years to complete, will assess the cost of providing alternative areas of wetlands and the chances of finding suitable land.

It is claimed that more than 65,000 wetland birds are attracted each winter to sites that would be affected and they would need to be found alternative areas. To make matters worse saltmarshes, like those in the Severn estuary, are among the rarest types of habitat to be found in the British Isles. Similar work has taken place in parts of Essex, also as previously reported on by Land & People, but there remain doubts about how easy it would be for important fish species to transfer to restored areas.

Understandably ornithologists have considerable reservations about the Severn barrage proposal and a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, recently said that the Government needed “to think long and hard” before committing itself. He said: “Supporting this scheme to the tune of £15 billion would not leave much spare change for alternative projects should it fail to deliver, so the Government has to be sure it is the right place to risk so much taxpayers’ money.”

The attraction of the Severn estuary, in terms of energy generation, is because it has the second-largest tidal range in the world �“ the difference between the highest and lowest tides is up to 42ft (14m).

It is further stated that the feasibility study would be followed by public consultations if it were felt that the project should go ahead �“ a questionable eventuality considering recent legislative proposals to ignore such consultation where the “national interest” is said to be in question!

In addition the feasibly study will look at several options, including the biggest proposal - for a barrage between Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare and will consider tidal lagoons.

According to the politicians and their friends in the energy and construction industries, the barrage is needed to meet the growing energy requirements of the nation. Surely, we suggest, a far cheaper and less environmentally destructive solution would be to curtail energy demand growth by simply halting immigration into our overpopulated land? And could not significant savings be made in existing energy demand through deporting the one million or so, illegal consumers currently squatting in our country �“ people having neither moral nor legal right to be here in the first place?