PLANS for a huge new deep-sea dock between Southampton Water and the New Forest have been challenged by the government's main wildlife watchdog.

English Nature has objected to the scheme for a new container terminal at Dibden Bay since the plans were first unveiled.

At the continuing public inquiry in Southampton's Eastern Docks yesterday, English Nature barrister Graham Machin quizzed conservation expert Philip Colebourn over the potential damage to bird life in the bay.

Mr Colebourn is putting the case on nature conservation for Southampton Docks operator Associated British Ports, which wants to build the terminal.

He was asked by Mr Machin: "If you were to obliterate the foreshore of Dibden Bay you couldn't say the natural habitat would remain.

"It would be finished and would clearly not remain in a stable condition, would it?"

Mr Colebourn conceded: "In the very short term, that is possibly true."

But he added that in the long term, the populations of birds would have recovered and moved to new grounds. Earlier, Mr Machin had referred to the 42-hectare area - about 100 acres - of bird habitats being used for the dock.

But Mr Colebourn said: "In terms of the scale of the greater Solent, I do not consider that removing a few hectares in any one year is a significant disturbance."

He also pointed out that the entire 42 hectares was not being taken out in the same year and that the habitat would be replaced by the recharging of the nearby saltmarshes with the dredgings.

But Mr Machin also made it clear that English Nature did not necessarily agree with ABP that pumping the dredged materials on to the foreshore would be beneficial in conservation terms.