THE greatest debate ever to hit Southampton Water is now heading into its final stages - but when the talking stops, the decision-making will begin...

The public inquiry into Associated British Ports' plans for a £750m dock development between Hythe and Marchwood is due to end next week.

And the man at the sharp end of the decision-making duties is government planning inspector Michael Hurley.

He is the government inspector who will have to draft a huge report and send his recommendation to Transport Secretary Alistair Darling - and what a choice the inspector and the Secretary of State are left with!

They could tell Southampton Docks operator Associated British Ports it has wasted the £30m it has spent on drawing up its plans and its huge legal campaign for a container terminal and other port installations.

Out of the window would go the proposals for railway sidings, 22 cranes, 1.5km of dockside and facilities for railway sidings, container ship berths, car imports and exports and aggregate dock.

The other option is to give the dock the go-ahead and tell environmental campaigners and tens of thousands of residents in the Waterside parishes from Totton to Fawley that the huge port is on its way and that there will be extra traffic, noise, disturbance, a skyline changed for ever and many varieties of wildlife and birds looking for new homes.

There are fears, too, that all the dredging might spell doom for the salmon of the Test and Itchen.

From the moment they first walked into the inquiry, for its opening day at the Applemore Recreation Centre, Mr Hurley and his deputy Andrew Phillipson have had the air of the rock solid decision-makers both sides would want.

They began at Applemore by sitting in front of around 350 people, almost all of them against the plan.

For most of the time since then, they have sat in an almost-empty former Stena ferry building, often with fewer than a dozen observers and with anything from ten to 40 people backing the legal teams and experts fighting the case.

They have avoided making any public comment on their views, they have smiled during the lighter moments and they have come down with a rod of iron on any interruptions, bursts of applause or mobile phones.

And when they have entered or left the room, they have avoided any kind of involvement. But the incredible amount of homework done by these two strangers from the planning inspectorate is awe-inspiring.

Very early on in the inquiry, two objectors asked for the scheme - if it was allowed - to be moved 400 metres to the north-west.

Quick as a flash and without looking at any maps, Mr Hurley pointed out that that would push it almost entirely into the New Forest Heritage Area, where he could not permit any major development anyway, which made the idea a complete non-starter.

Later on in the inquiry, an objector referred to a road junction in the Andover area - a junction which thousands of Hampshire people wouldn't be aware of.

And Mr Phillipson instantly made it clear he had looked at the junction - albeit around 25 miles from the Bay - on a number of occasions.

Just two examples amid hundreds that the men at the helm have done their homework.

They also have an air of two men wanting to listen to anything they don't already know.

Now, more than 100 days into the inquiry, they have heard most of it before.

When they have, they just sit and listen, quietly, respectfully and intently.

When they haven't and when it is something new, they grab their pens and make copious notes.

The inquiry is in the hands of two men who already knew a lot, but haven't stopped learning from the minute they arrived. The key legal figure behind the proposal is Martin Kingston, the slim, immaculate and unyielding QC for ABP who has won respect from his staunchest opponents, some of whom have said openly that they don't like him, but none of whom have said they don't respect him.

He has worked hand in glove with ABP's project director Jimmy Chestnutt, the silver-haired captain of the Dibden Bay ship who has been moderately prominent in the public part of the inquiry, but who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to overcome as many of the objections as possible.

Against the plan the list is almost endless: Richard Drabble, QC for Hampshire and New Forest Councils, Robert Griffiths, QC for the government's environment Agency, Jonathan Mitchell and Graham Machin for English Nature, - which is another government agency - have been among the key players.

Prominent among key individuals are Paul Vickers, chairman of the lead action group against the scheme, Residents Against Dibden Bay Port, Marchwood's New Forest councillor Nick Smith and New Forest East MP Doctor Julian Lewis.

Dr Lewis has made his appearances in public, but has left few stones unturned in trying to rattle the ABP cage by sending out a series of scare stories to its big investors.

And who has dropped out?

Esso were among the early objectors, but things have gone quiet in that direction and the early might of messages against the Bay plan by Defence Estates on behalf of Marchwood Military Port have also faded considerably.

Apology offered 3,000 times in inquiry

ACCORDING to the epic film Love Story, love is about never having to say you're sorry.

But it is a word that has been used more than 3,000 times in a public inquiry into planning a huge container terminal in Southampton.

Everything said at the inquiry, which is reaching its grand finale, is pretty official and the word 'thank you' is streets ahead at well over 6,000 and still rising.

On day 85 of the inquiry - September 3 to be precise - the general gratitude was so overwhelming that it was uttered no fewer than 126 times.

And when it's all over, someone will be saying thank you to the Secretary of State for Transport.

Alistair Darling holds that job at the moment, barring another cabinet shake-up, and he's the man who will have to make a decision after studying inquiry inspector Michael Hurley's report.

It will probably not be known for another year who will thank him and who will be sorry.

Meanwhile, the words are still rolling off people's tongues in the former Stena ferry terminal in Southampton Docks and 'inspector' is emerging as one of the most-used of the lot at around 10,000.

Pushing towards 5,000 is Kingston - Martin Kingston, the Queen's Counsel leading ABP's campaign - who has emerged as a name feared by opponents of the scheme and revered by supporters.

Southampton, ships, port, Dibden and need are all words which have soared into the thousands too.