Tidal lagoon decision ‘not the end’ say Lib Dems

This week’s confirmation by the government that they will not back the pioneering Swansea Tidal Lagoon proposal has been called “Disappointing, but certainly not surprising” by Southport’s Liberal Democrats, who have been advocating a similar scheme for Southport for some time. 

“To have any chance of bringing forward something like this for Southport, we needed the government to back the Swansea proposal”, said Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate John Wright. “This would have signalled that the government were prepared to back tidal power schemes as another step towards a Britain powered by renewables; other schemes, like in Southport, could have been brought forward”.

“We don’t regard this as the end, though”, said Mr Wright. “Hopefully the next government will have a more positive attitude towards renewables, and would back research into other tidal lagoon schemes.” He quoted Lib Dem MP and former Environment Minister Ed Davey as saying he was “hugely disappointed that the plan for tidal lagoons across Britain I kicked off as Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change has today been killed off by the Conservatives – a historic mistake for Britain’s green energy future”. 

Mr Wright said: “It would be a mistake to write off a tidal power scheme for Southport at some point in the future. Southport Labour Party have publicly poured scorn on the idea, but for us it should remain an aspiration for the town. This is about cheap, clean energy; it’s about job creation. Those are both things we need in Southport. Other parties ought not to be dismissing it out of hand”.