Severn barrage plan dropped

The Government yesterday dropped plans to build a 10-mile barrage across the Severn estuary to generate "green" electricity from tides.

An official study said there was no "strategic case" for investing public money in such a scheme, which could cost over 30bn, although it said it could be reconsidered as a longer-term option in the future. But the Department of Energy paved the way for new nuclear power plants at eight sites: Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Oldbury, South Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; Sizewell, Suffolk and Wylfa, Anglesey. The coalition Government has already said it will give the go-ahead to firms who want to build new nuclear plants, provided there is no public subsidy involved.