"TOO little and too late" is English Nature's assessment of plans by Associated British Ports to lessen the blow of their proposed terminal on the wildlife of Dibden Bay.

Bird expert Allan Drewitt took the hot seat on Day 53 of the planning inquiry into the £750m scheme, being held at Southampton's Eastern Docks.

He is English Nature's leading ornithologist for the Dibden Bay plan and has spent four years investigating its potential impact on the Bay - a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

"ABP have underestimated the numbers of birds that are likely to be displaced both temporarily and permanently as a result of the proposed development," said Mr Drewitt.

"There would be a substantial time lag between the loss of existing habitats and the development of potential alternatives."

And Mr Drewitt warned that those alternatives - a new creek, dredged material to "recharge" the foreshore between Hythe and Cadland, and a conservation area at Church Farm, Dibden - were not up to the job.

"ABPs proposals are inadequate or uncertain," he said.

"The creation of the creek next to the terminal site and the Church Farm conservation area would fail to accommodate important populations of breeding lapwing, and largely fail to accommodate wintering waterbirds.

"Most of those breed in the high Arctic. They only have a limited window of opportunity to nest and rear young. Staging sites - like Dibden Bay - en route to the breeding grounds are of critical importance. Loss of such a site could result in higher mortality."

Mr Drewitt said ABP's ecology expert Phil Colebourn could not claim - as he did on Day 43 of the inquiry - that "no birds would die" as a direct result of the Dibden Bay development.

He also disagreed with Mr Colebourn's view that the Hythe-to-Cadland foreshore was contaminated and in need of a "recharge" of freshly dredged mud.

"It is not fair to say this foreshore is deficient in silt-living animals. Recent counts have shown it is not such a poor feeding area as ABP has said, so their arguments for the recharge are reduced," said Mr Drewitt.

Proceeding