DREDGING and dumping schemes planned to offset the effects of a new container port at Dibden Bay would be the biggest ever attempted in the UK.

However, the massive project to deliver an alternative safe haven for displaced wildlife could end up smothering them in mud, according to coastal experts.

They were speaking at the public inquiry into the scheme by Associated British Ports to develop 128 hectares of marsh and mudflats between Hythe and Marchwood.

Inspector Michael Hurley was told by English Nature spokesman Richard Leafe that the idea of recharging marshes between Hythe and Cadland with millions of tonnes of dredged material would be damaging to a site of national importance.

He added: "We at English Nature don't think it will work. It won't deliver ecological benefits. It would be negative to the Special Area of Conservation, and it would interfere with the natural form of the estuary."

Dredging expert Mike Dearnaley, speaking for the Environment Agency, New Forest District Council and Hampshire County Council, agreed the impact of the Dibden scheme was uncertain. He said: "Construction of the terminal will have a number of consequences. The inter-tidal recharge between Hythe and Cadland is a novel and extensive proposal of greater magnitude than any other similar scheme attempted in the UK. The risks are therefore large, too. There is considerable uncertainty that a recharge of the size proposed will provide a mudflat that functions in a predictable manner."

Dr Dearnaley and Mr Leafe both said that ABP's recharge plan could result in important marshland habitats being smothered by silt.

Both experts were happier with ABP's second scheme to offset the impact of the proposed terminal on local flora and fauna - a new creek to give waders and water-life a replacement home was supported by English Nature, according to Mr Leafe.

"We welcome, should the terminal go ahead, the inclusion of the creek in the package, as we think it has some merits. But it is an experiment and we can't be sure what we'll get over the longer term," he said.

Dr Dearnaley said: "I accept ABP's view that the creek will create about 33 hectares of inter-tidal habitat. There is reasonable confidence in the ability to engineer the proposed form, in the short term."