The partnership behind the park proposal say it would help local people, visitors and business benefit from new and existing natural assets of the Ribble Coast and Wetlands, and make it an internationally-recognised destination.

The scheme, which it is hoped will be completed by 2020, would create jobs, attract visitors, enhance wildlife habitats, construct several new walking and cycling routes and increase the area of land under conservation management.

Around 250,000 birds from Russia, Scandinavia and Iceland make the estuary their winter home each year, including species like whooper swans, wigeons, Bewick swans, pink-footed geese, knots, dunlins, sanderlings and bar-tailed and black-tailed godwits.

The proposed park will cover areas of the estuary to the west of Preston, where the River Ribble meets the Irish Sea, including Freckleton salt marshes, Warton, Penwortham, and Hesketh Bank.

Tim Mitchum, conservation manager at Lancashire Wildlife Trust said: "We think it is an excellent initiative that will pull together lots of important wetlands and give more opportunity for people to see the amazing wildlife on the estuary."

At the launch of a report on the plan today (Friday), Laurence Rose of the RSPB, chair of the Regional Park Partnership management group, said the area's untapped and important birdlife and wetland landscape could rival other successful wildlife tourism spots, like the Norfolk Coast.