§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his current estimate of the dates for completion of consultation work for the Lower Severn estuary special protection area, registering the same area with the environment directorate of the European Union, producing a conservation plan for the wetlands habitat of bird species covered by the 1979 wild birds directive within the same special protection area, and producing a national conservation strategy for the redshank and dunlin; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Atkins[holding answer 22 April 1994]: Since the hon. Member's previous question on the lower Severn estuary of 26 October, Official Report, columns 533–34, my Department has received English Nature's proposals for the designation of this site as a special protection area. The period of consultation with private land owners and others by English Nature and the Countryside Commission for Wales ended on 18 April. The Lower Severn estuary is planned for designation as a special protection area in 1994.
English Nature and the Countryside Council for Wales are in the initial stages of preparing a management plan for the conservation of wildlife interests on the Severn. The Government's plans for the conservation of estuarial habitat and migratory wildfowl and waders, including dunlin and redshank, are informed by the extensive monitoring programmes compiled through the birds in estuaries inquiry, which uses a large number of professionally co-ordinated volunteers and is supported by the Government's nature conservation agencies. These programmes were recently re-launched, with Government endorsement, as the wetland bird survey.