SOME of the New Forest's most energetic senior citizens have leapt to the defence of footpaths threatened by plans for a container port at Dibden Bay.

The public inquiry into Associated British Ports' £750m scheme heard evidence from a 100-year-old former Hythe longshoreman and an 82-year old former planemaker at Hythe's Vickers- Supermarine.

Both veteran ramblers spoke out to defend footpaths they have trodden for most of a century and which might be lost or diverted if the port plan goes ahead.

Captain Harry Banks - born on the Waterside in 1902 - sent written evidence to the inquiry at Southampton's Eastern Docks. As a spokesman for the Ramblers' Association (RA), Captain Banks argued that the coastal path he had protected in the early 20th century should be preserved into the 21st.

"The footpath started at Jones Lane Hythe and ran to Eling Quay, Totton and as a longshoreman I was delegated to walk it once a month - usually with a policeman or customs officer to restrain poaching and smuggling," said Captain Banks.

He said the Dibden Bay reclaim - site of the proposed port - was designated open for walkers from its earliest days nearly half a century ago.

"After the first phase of pumping dredged mud onto Dibden Bay, the dredging company agreed that the public could walk on this land. Withies - willow trees - were planted over the whole reclaimed area to stabilise it," he said.

Maurice Barker - born in 1920 at Exbury near Beaulieu, and a pre-war worker at Hythe's famous planemakers, Super-marine - has walked the footpaths around Dibden Bay for nearly 70 years and been a member of the RA for 30 years.

"I am glad that this area I have known for so long is scheduled for inclusion in the proposed national park," he said.

"It makes sense to preserve the area between Hythe and Marchwood which forms a green corridor into the New Forest."

Alan Shotter, veteran New Forest councillor and long-term member of the RA, said: "We recognise the efforts that ABP have gone to, to produce an alternative right-of-way network and access near the land it proposes to redevelop," he said.

"But we think ABP's planned route is far longer and less convenient than that which exists at present, and it is right alongside the railway line.

"The Dibden Reclaim is at the moment a relatively peaceful pretty area of land intrinsically linked to the New Forest. A deep-sea container port would have a phenomenal effect."

Hythe and Dibden parish councillor Graham Parkes said : "This plan meets the needs of the developers, not the users. The new route would push pedestrians right up against the railway line and the present fine countryside views would be lost."

For ABP, Anthony Crean said new footpaths around the proposed container port would be of high quality, making it easier for walkers to use them in all weathers.