A RESEARCHER carrying out tests on Dibden Bay's mudflats had to be rescued - after becoming stuck in the mud.

The public inquiry into plans for a new container terminal at the site has this week been dealing with the issue of silt being dredged from the bay and then deposited on marshes between Hythe and Fawley.

But when he gave his evidence on the testing work, civil engineer Kim Candler told the inquiry just how soft the mud could be.

A consultant on a range of aspects including groundworks and land reclamation, he said: "There was one area where a colleague of mine was up to mid-thigh in a very short time and we had to drag him back."

Shortly after that revelation, he was cross-examined by English Nature counsel Graham Machin, who said he had also had an alarming experience himself in finding out just how soft and dangerous the mud was. English Nature, the government's conservation watchdog, is one of the groups objecting to the bay plan and to the pumping of dredgings on to the marshland.

Mr Machin told the in-quiry that the terminal project involved dredging 13 million cubic metres of materials with about 20 per cent being used to build up the level of the marshes.

But after indicating that the recharging of the marshes was likely to take around four years, he was quizzed by the inquiry's deputy inspector Andrew Phillipson.

Mr Phillipson suggested that because of the way the work was being done and the three-kilometre length of coastline involved, it was more likely to take 10 years.

The inquiry, set to last until mid-November, will resume on Tuesday when experts employed by the main objectors, including English Nature, Hampshire County and New Forest District Councils and the Environment Agency begin giving their evidence.