Labour’s angling spokesman Martin Salter, who is standing down at the General Election, has made a final call for better controls on numbers of otters and cormorants to ensure “a sustainable balance between predators and prey”.

MPs from opposite sides of the House of Commons have joined forces this week to call upon the Government to drop plans for the £23 billion Severn Barrage on environmental grounds. Labour MP Martin Salter (Reading West) and Conservative MP Charles Walker (Broxbourne) have published a detailed 90 page report covering the history and background to the barrage project with an examination of less damaging alternatives.

Reading West MP Martin Salter made his final Commons speech on Wednesday 7th April 2010, the day before Parliament was prorogued for the 6th May General Election. Mr Salter thanked Reading and District Labour Party for choosing him as a candidate on no fewer than seven occasions for both the Parliamentary and Reading Borough Council seats. He was successful in six of the seven contests and leaves a notional Labour majority of nearly 5,000 in his constituency.