Consultation on proposed changes to Liverpool Bay / Bae Lerpwl Special Protection Area
Photo ©Stuart Thomas
Outcome of this consultation
This consultation ended on 8 February 2017. Our final reports on the consultation were completed and submitted to the Welsh and UK Governments in June 2017. Having carefully considered all responses, we recommended to the Welsh and UK Governments that the proposed changes to Liverpool Bay / Bae Lerpwl SPA should be agreed to as consulted over. Copies of the consultation reports are available below.
Having considered our recommendations, the UK and Welsh Government have agreed to reclassify Liverpool Bay / Bae Lerpwl SPA.
Updated documentation for this site (including maps and formal designation documents) will be available in due course from our 'Designated Sites' web page. In addition, the information published for the consultation can still be accessed below.
Further information is also available on the JNCC and NE websites.
Please note that this is a separate consultation to the one we recently carried out on proposals for a number of other marine SPAs around Wales and proposed Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) for harbour porpoise. These consultations have now closed. SPAs are designated under the 2009 EU Wild Birds’ Directive which aims to conserve biodiversity across the European Union. Together SPAs and SACs designated under the EU Habitats Directive (92/42/EEC) make up a network of sites called ‘Natura 2000’. The Natura 2000 network consists of over 27,000 designated sites covering areas of land and sea in all EU member states.
Designation of SPAs in Wales and Welsh territorial waters is the responsibility of the Welsh Ministers. In England, English inshore waters and UK offshore waters, designation is the responsibility of the UK Secretary of State. Liverpool Bay / Bae Lerpwl SPA lies in Welsh and English waters and was designated jointly by the Welsh Ministers and UK Secretary of State in 2010.
NRW advises the Welsh Ministers on the identification and modification of SPAs in Wales, and we are carrying out this consultation on their behalf. We are working closely with Natural England who advise the UK Government on such matters. No decision on whether to formally make these proposed changes to Liverpool Bay / Bae Lerpwl SPA will be made until after NRW and Natural England have reported the results of the consultation to the Welsh and UK Governments. Anyone wishing to respond to this consultation is advised to first read our consultation paper which explains in more detail what this consultation is about and how to respond, and gives a guide to the documents that form part of this consultation.
Relevant documents:
- Consultation Paper PLEASE READ THIS FIRST
- Copy of the consultation letter
- Statutory Notice from Welsh Government instructing NRW to carry out the consultation
- Draft Impact Assessment for the proposed SPA in Welsh waters
- Consultation Report
- Impact Assessment consultation response
Documents on Natural England website: