Severn Barrage Scrapped. Barrages Yesterday's Big Idea

The news that the Severn Barrage scheme has finally been dropped comes as no surprise to members of Save The Ribble.

Barrages are expensive, they are barriers to marine wildlife, they totally mess up the environment.

The inflated claims made for the Severn Barrage's potential to generate energy have been shown to be vastly over optimistic,

The environmentalists case that the barrage would destroy rare habitats and threaten some fish and bird species while also raising the risk of floods has been shown to be correct.


FOE Cymru welcomed the decision while offering support for alternative approaches to reaping the Severn’s tidal power.

“The Severn estuary is an extremely important source of renewable energy that ought to be harnessed as soon as possible,” said FOE Cymru director Gordon James.

“We believe this could be done by other less damaging technologies, such as tidal lagoons, tidal reefs and a shoots barrage, and we hope the government will pursue these better options urgently.”


Save the Ribble congratulates FOE Cymru and all the anti-Severn Barrage campaigners for their long, sustained and well argued battle against this ill conceived plan.

Just as with the Ribble Barrage, the case for building the Severn barrage was put together by developers hoping to have huge amounts of public money poured down their throats. In the end, despite all the hype, the figures just did not add up. The big difference was that with the Ribble Barrage, there wasn't even the potential to generate electricity.