WATER watchdogs from the environment Agency have poured scorn on the £250,000 fund set aside by Associated British Ports to help save local fish stocks.

At the public inquiry at Southampton Docks into ABP's plans for a new container terminal at Dibden Bay, salmon topped the menu this week.

ABP has offered £250,000 to help boost numbers of wild salmon which travel up Southampton Water annually to reach their spawning grounds in the Itchen and Test rivers.

Ian Townend, ABP's environmental expert, has suggested using the cash to clean up gravel beds used by the salmon to lay their thousands of eggs, giving them a better chance of survival.

"We don't think there would be any material risk to the fish from a development at Dibden Bay. But we are offering this as an insurance policy in case we're wrong," he said.

But Robert Griffiths, for the Environment Agency, said ABP's gravel-cleaning scheme might not achieve its aims and the funding level was unacceptable.

"The Agency says that a minimum programme of £2m initially and £5m over the ten-year construction period would be needed," he said. "The planned development poses a serious threat of extinction to fish stocks. A fund of £250,000 is not going to do a great deal to offset it.

"There are 400,000 square metres of gravel in the Test and Itchen used by adult salmon. ABP's money would only pay for three per cent of that available habitat to be cleaned of silt. Not a significant contribution."

Mr Townend argued that ABP felt its contribution was proportionate, and how the money was used was up to the Environment Agency.

"Funding is needed now to support dwindling fish stocks, whether Dibden Bay gets permission or not. It is not fair to ask ABP to fund the whole of the agency's action plan for the Test and Itchen," he said.

Local fishery spokesmen are due to give evidence to the inquiry this afternoon.