From Mostyn, the wings are due to travel on board a specialist Chinese-built ro-ro vessel, due in the UK next month, to St Nazaire in France where it will pick up fuselage sections, then on to Bordeaux-Langon from where onward transit by river barge and road trailer will deliver them to the Airbus assembly facility at Toulouse. Until the ro-ro vessel Ville de Bordeaux arrives, early wings will be transported on board another, shallower draft, specialist vessel borrowed from the Ariane space rocket programme.

The intricate logistical operation, which will see Ville de Bordeaux collecting components from Airbus factories at Broughton, St Nazaire and Hamburg to a very tight schedule, has been threatened by the UK Environment Agency's refusal to grant maintenance dredging consent to the Port of Mostyn.

The Port's original capital dredge was to a depth of 4m below chart datum, which would be sufficient for safe passage of the Ville de Bordeaux. The normal process of siltation has, however, reduced the channel's depth to 1m, which could keep the vessel out of the Port for up to 22 days per month.

The Port is seeking to remove up to 300,000m 3of material from the shallow channel per annum, restoring the original 4m depth but giving an 'advertised' depth of 3m which would be residual between scheduled maintenance dredgings. The dredged material would be deposited at Mostyn Deep, from where it would recirculate naturally and stay within the estuary.

Under the EU Habitats Directive, ports must prove that activities such as dredging have no adverse impact upon the conservation features of the targeted area. The Port of Mostyn must prove that dredged material is not lost by escaping into Liverpool Bay.

A comprehensive tracking study conducted by HR Wallingford used tracers to indeed prove that dredged material was not being lost but the Environment Agency and DEFRA have still turned down the application on the grounds that this could not be proved 'conclusively'. If the case for dredging cannot be proved scientifically under Section 48 of the Habitats Regulations, then Section 49 allows for permission to be granted due to 'over-riding public interest'.

The British Government has underwritten the £560 million Airbus wing factory at Broughton, which directly employs some 6,500 people and has the largest apprentice scheme in the UK.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott have both made appearances at the Broughton wing factory and earlier this month The Queen toured the Toulouse final assembly facility where she was taken aboard an A380 mock-up. There are many interested parties across Europe hoping that such high profile support will translate into dredging consent for Mostyn before Ville de Bordeaux arrives from China.

MJ Information No: 19301