A leading Yorkshire conservation group today backed calls for a tough new drive to protect the country's top wetland wildlife sites from pollution or being sucked dry.

Eighty top wetland wildlife sites - including eight in Yorkshire - are in danger of being polluted or dried out by water firms under pressure to cut bills to consumers, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and English Nature.

At a conference yesterday, the two organisations called on the public to lobby the Government, MPs, local councillors and OFWAT against cuts in water bills at the expense of wildlife.

The groups identified 80 sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) at risk, including, in the Yorkshire region, Pocklington, Melbourne and Thornton Ings; the headwaters of the River Hull; the River Derwent and its surrounding ings and wetlands; the Hatfield and Thorne Moor peat bogs; Breighton Meadows; Askham Bog; and the Thorne, Crowle and Goole Moors.

Peter Bowler, of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said he was heartened by calls to ensure these sites received the protection they deserved.

But he said the debate should not be seen in terms of conservation at the expense of lower bills for the consumer - arguing that water firms could afford to protect SSSIs and reduce charges.

He said: "The money needed for conservation is about one per cent of the total capital expenditure that water companies undertake. If you excuse the pun, it's a drop in the ocean."

And he welcomed tougher action to ensure SSSIs were protected from sewage pollution and over-abstraction.

He said the current protection was very weak: "For some to be drained dry or be polluted by sewage illustrates the weaknesses in protecting them.

"The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has been campaigning for some time to have the law tightened. It will have to come. There has been so much pressure across the country. If SSSIs mean anything, they must be given absolute protection."

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