CAMPAIGNERS against a huge port between Hythe and Marchwood have expressed fears of a massive mound of mud.

Southampton Docks owner Associated British Ports is planning to build a container terminal at Dibden Bay and has confirmed that it is looking at "intertidal recharge." That would involve dredging up spoil from the bed of Southampton Water off Dibden to create the deep water berths and turning area for ships using the new terminal.

ABP has already held talks with management at Esso Petroleum and Exxon Chemical, which owns and operates the huge Fawley petro-chemical complex. And preliminary documents have indicated it is investigating the possibility of "inter-tidal enhancement and extension of the area between Hythe and Cadland".

Campaigners are estimating that if that two-mile stretch as used, it would create a mound of mud almost two miles long.

Businessman Terry McKnight, of the Residents Against Dibden Bay group, has calculated that around 14 million cubic metres of soil and sludge would have to be taken from the sea bed.

He said: "If that was piled up in the area between Hythe and Cadland, it would be almost 19 feet high. What a pretty sight that would look for people opposite at Netley and at Hythe."

But ABP said: "Far from building a 19ft high wall of dredgings, as has been alleged, the process of inter tidal recharge creates a thin film of dredged material that is often undetectable and may be only a few centimetres deep.

"Dredged material will be put to a number of uses - some in constructing the terminal, some in constructing the creek that is incorporated into ABP's environmental mitigation plans and some in the process of inter tidal recharge.

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