THE Mersey Basin Campaign is organising a major environment conference in Liverpool this month to celebrate their 25th and final year.

This free half-day event features a line- up of top speakers, including the secretary of state for the environment, Hilary Benn (via a live video link from London), the government's former chief scientific advisor Professor Sir David King, former environment minister Lord Heseltine and Bishop James Jones of Liverpool.

Daily Post columnist and BBC journalist Jim Hancock will MC the event.

There is also an optional trip on a Mersey ferry along the river to view the redevelopment of Liverpool's famous waterfront.

As the campaign reaches the end of its planned lifespan, the conference will celebrate a quarter of a century of successful environmental action and mark a decade since the campaign was honoured globally as inaugural winner of the World Riverprize. The conference will pass on the lessons of 25 years of partnership working.

It will also hear from top-level speakers and look to the future that is rapidly unfolding – a Northwest Region that will be radically different over the next 25 years.

The event takes place on September 22, at the Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre, Liverpool, from 8.45am-1pm.

TO BOOK your place, email f.bhatti@merseybasin.org.uk, telephone Fouzia Bhatti on 0161 242 8200 or book online at www.merseybasin.org.uk by Friday, September 4.