asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if, when he reaches a decision on the Dee Barrage, he will ensure that any development or reclamation of the estuary for new land or fresh water will not affect detrimentally the environment of Cheshire and North Wales.

The effect of any development on the environment of Cheshire and North Wales is one of the considerations which I am studying with my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.

Would my right hon. Friend agree that this multi-purpose and imaginative scheme will not only prove profitable but will increase the beauty of the area and also provide amenities which the North West so badly needs?

It is an important scheme but until full consideration has been given to all the implications I cannot give a detailed comment.

Why should my constituents and the rest of North Wales be penalised by this tardy example of government by delay? Is it not a fact that the possibility now is that More cambe Bay may get a barrage first rather than the Dee? Just how split is the Cabinet on this issue?

I have not detected any split of any degree on this issue.