HC Deb 22 July 1985 vol 83 cc373-4W
Mr. Kilroy-Silk

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list all the projects that are part of the campaign to clean up the Mersey river and estuary and

Mr. Biffen

The information is as follows:

land alongside the water courses of the Mersey basin, indicating their scale, when they are to be completed, and the organisation responsible and their cost.

Mr. Waldegrave

The River Mersey Initiative, to which the hon. Member's question refers, is a long-term campaign which could take as much as 25 years because of the severe problems that have to be tackled. For lhe whole campaign, therefore, only broad estimates are possible. The North West water authority has estimated the total costs of the water quality side of the task at up to £2.5 billion. The work on the landward side will be carried out by the public, private and voluntary sectors between them; and its total value is estimated at around £1.5 billion. The detailed scheduling of projects, by the water authority and the local authorities, will be a continuous process related to successive stages of the campaign.