A GROUP has been set up to protect wildlife on nature reserves along Halton’s river banks as part of a major £600m Mersey Gateway project.
The Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust completed its membership this week by recruiting two experts in flora and fauna.
Professor David Norman, Cheshire Wildlife Trust chairman, and Liz Newton, a Natural England programme director, will serve as trust directors.
The board’s aim is to protect, manage, conserve and improve the physical and natural environment across a 28.5ha saltmarsh nature reserve that runs along 200m of the River Mersey’s banks near to the proposed bridge site.
The trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee. Its other four directors are Halton’s Cllr Dave Thompson, Warrington’s Cllr Geoff Settle, Moore Parish Council’s Peter Edmonds and Walton Parish’s Council’s Yousuf Shaikh.
A project spokesman said the trust will create long-lasting environmental benefits.
The trust’s goals include restoring and creating saltmarsh, attracting important bird species, increasing the breeding bird population such as skylark and meadow pipit, introducing rare breeds of ‘conservation cattle’.
Prof Norman said: “We want to protect the habitats and wildlife around the bridge and invite residents and schools to experience the new and interesting wildlife and to find out more about our work.”
Liz Newton said: “I am delighted to be involved.
“This is the first time that a major bridge construction project in the UK has set up a trust of this type, and I hope it will be a model for future projects in this country and beyond.”
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