We'd like to thank all the people who took part in the first of our four workshops today in Runcorn. It was a busy but very productive day.

Around 25 people attended the workshop from as far away as the Isle of Man. After a brief introduction from the Irish Sea Conservation Zones project manager, Rowan Byrne, our independent facilitator Diana Pound took over for the rest of the day.

Diana guided attendees through a series of exercises and discussions designed to capture their views on a host of issues facing the Irish Sea and the project to recommend parts of it for environmental protection.

Inevitably at such an early stage in the project, many questions were raised. Staff answered the questions wherever possible, and the the questions themselves were noted so that we can post the answers here on this website over the coming weeks.

Also over the coming weeks we will post detailed outputs from all four of the workshops taking place in October. Following today's workshop (October 1st), further workshops take place tomorrow in Liverpool, on Monday in Blackpool and later in the month (October 13th) in Cumbria.

Interested in coming along to a workshop? Find out more.