A BUSINESSMAN who plans to build a causeway from Brean Down to Lavernock Point in Wales has resurfaced this week to declare his confidence that the project will go ahead.
Entrepreneur Gareth Woodham intends to create the 145,000hectare Severn Lake but has been quiet for months after the plan was initially touted last year.
Now a map of his scheme has been released, showing exactly where the 1,000metre causeway would be placed to make the enormous expanse of water.
Mr Woodham told the Weekly News he still had confidence in the project and said it had been applauded at a Green Party workshop in Bristol to discuss renewable energy across the south west.
"We were very well received and we had a number of e-mails from people that were in the audience that thought it was great that we were moving ahead," he said.
"We are at the stage now when we are a few months before putting in the big planning application for the project.
"Everything that we do at the moment is governed by the Department of Trade and Industry. The target is still 2020 and my mission statement is still the same."
Mr Woodham wants the 1km-wide concrete causeway to contain 200 hydro-electric turbines and house two wave farms on the western side of the structure.
He also wants central concrete-encased, robotically-controlled landfill cellars, autonomous power and water services, and two lock gate shipping channels.
The plans also say the businessman envisages four marinas, one lifeboat station, and 12 islands on the central eastern shipping channel of the newly created area.
In January this year he set up the Severn Lake Company Limited and a small team to start up the project. An entry on the company website describes help and support given so far as "very encouraging".
To find out more about the plans visit the website at www.severnlake.co.uk.
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