INTOLERABLE and unacceptable - a Hythe Marina resident has given his own heartfelt assessment of the potential noise threat from the proposed container port at Dibden Bay.

After a week of arguing over decibel tables and noise mitigation factors at the public inquiry into Associated British Ports' £750m scheme, Sir Anthony Gill, a businessman retired to the Marina, injected a personal note of appeal into the technical proceedings.

"My wife and I chose Hythe Marina as the best in the south of England for position, accessibility, community spirit and above all peace and quiet," he told the inquiry at Southampton's Eastern Docks.

"We invested a significant part of our savings into our present home. There seemed no threat to what the Marina was - a delightful boating community offering quiet and peaceful enjoyment to residents.

"News of ABP's plans came as a great shock, and of all the detrimental impacts on the Marina, one of the most disturbing would be the noise and vibration during construction and the proposed 24-hour operation of the terminal."

ABP's plans for Dibden Bay include a quay wall nearly 2km long to accommodate up to six container ships. The wall would need up to 900 huge piles, driven into the ground at the rate of possibly five a day.

Sir Anthony, chairman of the Hythe Marina Association, said recent house-shuddering experience of one small pile being driven within the Marina had given residents a hint of the possible horrors ahead if the port development just 330 metres away gets approval.

"For a layman it is difficult to get an appreciation of the calculations from ABP's noise experts. I and some colleagues went on my boat to see and hear the current container terminal in Southampton Docks," said Sir Anthony.

"When we were 300 metres away we noticed that the noise level was very noticeable and intrusive. Generators, cranes and hoists, fans and bangs from containers would be quite unacceptable to us, especially at night. And the pleasures of eating outside and enjoying our gardens, patios and deck areas would be destroyed."

He added that another noise threat was the possibility of dredging to lower the depth of the main channel and make the new terminal more accessible for the biggest container ships.

"I was here for the last capital dredge and it felt like a minor earthquake," said Sir Anthony.

Proceeding.