Mersey Gateway shortlisted for ecology award

Team behind new Mersey Gateway recognised for excellence in ecology and environmental management.

The team building Halton’s landmark new Mersey Gateway bridge has reached the final of a national competition that recognises excellence in ecology and environmental management.

This year’s Chartered Institute for Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) Best Practice awards highlights teams working on large-scale projects that have shown outstanding examples of environmental management. The project behind team for the Mersey Gateway project have now been shortlisted as a finalist for the stakeholder engagement award.

Dr Mark Hampton, the project’s lead ecologist, said the awards recognised the highest standards of professionalism in environmental management across the project site and from Merseylink and its partners AECOM, Kier and the Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust.

“Preserving and improving the natural environment surrounding the project and wider areas was a priority from the beginning,” he said.

“Being shortlisted is recognition of everyone’s hard work, but we want to go one step further and win it, and demonstrate the work we’ve put in to engage with environmental stakeholders is the gold standard.”

In order to be shortlisted for the prestigious award, the team had to show how it met a number of criteria, including how sensitive environmental issues were resolved. They ensured that all information for stakeholders such as Natural England, the Environment Agency, the Marine Management Organisation, the Local Planning Authority and research institutions was easily accessed.

Through community engagement events, the establishment of volunteer groups and working closely with local students, the team prioritised engaging with organisations and including the local community.

Leader of Halton Borough Council, Cllr Rob Polhill, congratulated the team on being shortlisted.

“This is recognition of the extremely high standard of work that has been demonstrated from the project team since this project began,” he said.

“Any large-scale project has to pay careful consideration to its environmental impact. This nomination shows how important environmental and ecological considerations have been from the start.”

The CIEEM Best Practice awards will be held in London on 21 June.

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