AMBITIOUS plans to build a ten-mile tidal barrage across the River Severn were unveiled in November 2006.

The plans, which would cost an estimated £14 billion, would result in the creation of the UK’s largest renewable energy project.

Following a meeting at Stonehouse Court Hotel, where politicians, engineers and environmentalists met to discuss the potential future of the project, a barrier between Brean Down, near Weston-super-Mare, and Lavernock Point, near Cardiff, was agreed upon.

The barrage would take six years to build, but the planning stage could take upwards of five years, meaning 2018 would be the target for completion.

Supporters claim it could provide a massive five per cent of the UK’s planned energy needs and more than double the UK’s current output from renewable energy sources.

John Redman, spokesman for the Severn Tidal Power Group, the civil engineering company in charge of the project, said: “If the comforts provided by electricity are to continue as they are at present, our current systems for providing energy must be replaced.

“The barrage would contribute about five per cent of the UK’s current electricity needs, which is the equivalent of covering Cornwall in wind turbines.”

The giant structure would have roads and railway lines running across it and locks for ships to pass through, and it is thought that it would provide protection against high tides and rises in sea levels.

Leader of Gloucestershire County Council, Conservative councillor Barry Dare, said: “Anyone who doesn’t recognise the problems of climate change isn’t living in the real world.

“Some authorities predict that by the end of this century, the water level in the Severn may rise by two metres.”

He added: “The rivers hold the potential to produce green electricity and therefore decrease a need for nuclear power stations.”

The Severn Estuary has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world and the barrage would work by impounding the tide and then releasing water through a turbine to generate electricity.