MOORING holders on the river Hamble could gain control over hundreds of Hampshire's most in-demand berths under new plans being considered by harbour bosses.

Boat-users on the popular stretch of water - which currently has a 20-year wait for places and a queue of thousands - are being asked how they want to see the river managed in the future.

One of the options proposed in a mass consultation exercise carried out by the county harbour authority is to place the moorings in the hands of the holders themselves.

The public survey, which ends tomorrow, was launched after the future of leasing arrangements on the Hamble was left hanging in the air by tightened government controls on borrowing.

Until recently the county council held a 25-year lease from the Crown Estate under which it licensed about 1,200 moorings.

But alternatives are now being considered by county chiefs, who have refused to set aside the £4 million necessary for it to continue as a council service amid other more pressing demands.

The three possibilities for future management are the Crown Estate appointing its own managing agents, the moorings being handed out to clubs and boatyards that currently lease blocks of berths, or for the mooring holders themselves to take charge.

The idea of management by river-users has been welcomed by members of the River Hamble's Mooring Holders' Association (RHMHA).

In a letter to the council, secretary David Davis said: "The optimum administrative structure would be to have one body to represent the 1,200 or so mooring holders.

"It is suggested that this body is made up of representatives from harbour authority mooring holders such as the RHMHA, boatyards, other small commercial operators and yacht clubs holding river moorings."

Association chairman Roger Daw urged everybody to have their say on the plans and added: "This is the current burning question."

A full report on the consultation exercise and a recommendation for future mooring administration will go before the council's river management committee in January.