Tendring District Council (TDC) has submitted its bid to extend an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) across the River Stour estuary to include its southern shoreline.

At present, the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB only includes the river's northern shoreline. However, the local council believes the designation should be expanded to cover both sides of the Stour. Essex County Council, the Essex and Suffolk Wildlife Trusts, the RSPB and the Council for the Protection of Rural England have supported the TDC bid, which has been submitted to Natural England.

TDC's Carlo Guglielmi said: "In terms of a landscape unit it makes no sense at all as it excluded the whole of the estuary and the southern shore from the AONB." David Wood, chair of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB Partnership, added: "To have only one side of an estuary formally designated as AONB when the evidence clearly demonstrates that the other side is of equal landscape quality and value does not seem right."