THE Green Party is all for harnessing of some of the tidal energy of the Severn, but not the great 'white elephant' of a barrage, supported by both the Labour and Tory parties.

These barrages are an irresponsible and wasteful gamble – there are simply too many cheaper options for clean energy generation.

And for energy conservation, which we have been pushing for hard since the 1970s – £20 bn buys a lot of insulation.

We have been proposing and supporting tidal lagoons. They are on the short-list for closer scrutiny. But not on the grandness of scale we would like. – James Greenwood, West Glos Green Party.