SOUTHAMPTON port bosses are facing calls to open Dibden Bay to the public following the collapse of plans for a £600m container terminal.

Campaigners say the 500-acre site would provide the Waterside - one of the most densely populated parts of Hampshire - with an ideal leisure area.

Dibden Bay is currently closed to the public, despite being part of the proposed New Forest National Park.

Proposals by Associated British Ports (ABP) to build a massive dock development on the land were thrown out by the government last month.

Experts say the decision has left ABP with a huge site that is virtually worthless in commercial terms.

Dibden Bay is part of the strategic gap between Hythe and Marchwood and any plan to build housing there would almost certainly be rejected.

Now Waterside residents are calling for the site to be opened up for public use.

They hope ABP will eventually agree to sell the land to Hampshire Wildlife Trust or Hampshire County Council, which has a strategy to preserve coastal areas.

Today the county council said it had not ruled out buying Dibden Bay as an area for public use.

Maureen Robinson, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat group on New Forest Council, is among those calling for better access to the site.

She said: "Now the government has ruled that Dibden Bay should not be developed for port-related use, it does seem that ABP may need to rethink whether its interests can best be served by retaining ownership.

"Why can't it be put into public ownership, which would enable it to be protected and managed properly for wildlife and public access?"

Paul Vickers, chairman of Residents Against Dibden Bay Port, said: "I would dearly like to see the site handed over to Hampshire Wildlife Trust, which would maintain it and allow the public to use designated footpaths.

"But I think ABP will retain the land unless its designation is enhanced even further and they realise they will never get development rights."

Plans to make the New Forest a national park are likely to be approved later this year following a public inquiry.

A Council For National Parks spokesman said the inclusion of land in a national park did not give the public an automatic right to enter the site.

However, he said each national park authority attempted to negotiate with private landowners.

County council leader Ken Thornber said: "Our primary concern would be to see a plan preserving this site as a strategic gap between Marchwood and Hythe, securing it from development.

"In the longer-term, the county council could be interested in its acquisition as an area for public use.

"However, this would depend on the price asked, and indeed, on ABP's willingness to put it on the market in the first instance."

But the company currently has no plans to sell the site.

ABP spokesman David Cocke said today: "Dibden Bay was acquired for potential port development and that remains the position."