Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the protection and preservation of (a) the Ribble and Alt Estuaries, (b) Southport’s sand dune habitats and (c) other aspects of Southport’s coastlines.

This part of the coast is protected by the following designations; Sefton Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Ribble Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Sefton Coast Special Area of Conservation, Ribble and Alt Estuaries Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ribble and Alt Estuaries Ramsar. Natural England (NE) provides statutory nature conservation advice to Local Authorities, landowners and others on activities affecting these designated sites to ensure they are protected

NE’s aim for this area is to reconnect coastal designated sites to the low-lying coastal plain and the River Alt by a series of naturally regenerating wetlands and grasslands. Key to achieving this is NE’s work with farmers and landowners to encourage uptake of our Environmental Land Management Schemes and NE’s Catchment Sensitive Farming Advisers support farmers and growers to produce food in a way that protects water, air and soil.

The Environment Agency (EA) has created new saltmarsh habitat on the Ribble Estuary at Hesketh Out Marsh and is strategically looking at other coastal realignment opportunities for both flood risk management and biodiversity net gain benefits.

In 2022/23 the EA funded work with Mersey Rivers Trust investigating the nature and extent of pesticide and herbicide content within the lower reaches of the River Alt. Through Catchment Abstraction Management Strategies (CAMS) the EA also ensures the water resources of the catchments along the Ribble, Alt & Southport coast are sustainable.

Southport is a priority bathing water and the EA will be taking regular water quality samples throughout the coming bathing water season, 15 May to the end of September. Funding from Defra in 2021/22 provided resource for the EA to carry out farm inspections at an additional 30 farms in the South Fylde/Ribble Estuary area. These inspections were focused on developing improvement plans to reduce diffuse pollution impacting the receiving watercourses in the area and thereby the bathing waters at Southport.