Government support for tidal project 'huge step forward'
The plan is to construct the world's largest tidal power project in the River Mersey
The Mayor of the Liverpool City Region says having the government's support to construct the world's largest tidal power project in the River Mersey is 'a huge step forward'.
We're told creating a barrage will deliver enough clean, predictable energy to power hundreds of thousands of homes for 120 years.
A six-week public consultation started at the beginning of this month on the proposals, with planning set to be submitted in 2026.
In a visit to Liverpool last week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said they're supportive of the move, subject to business cases.
Mayor Steve Rotheram said:
"We've had conversations with the Chancellor and Rachel (Reeves) is supportive of the concept and we've never had that before, so that's a huge step forward for us.
"It's a huge frustration that we have to take so long to do these things, but if you get it wrong, what you get is a rejection - you see what happened with Swansea for instance and one of two of the other big nuclear projects that didn't come off and we want this to work because we think it's so important to the future of the river and the people in the Liverpool City Region.
"We keep on talking about this being an energy project and it is, primarily it's about energy, but also, with the rising sea levels, we're going to have to do something about flood defences and this could be another one of those ancillary benefits that possibly the government haven't considered to this date so we're trying to get them in the right space so that they understand this is multifaceted."
The plans include the possibility of a cycle and pedestrian route over the river between Liverpool and Wirral.
The next public meeting on the project is being held on Friday (Friday 11 October) at Delamere Community Centre.