THE two men at the helm of a public inquiry into plans for a new dock on the shores of Southampton Water are quietly making sure that they do their job thoroughly outside of the inquiry hall as well as on the inside.

Southampton Docks operator Associated British Ports is applying for approval for a new container terminal, which would also include roll-on roll-off car export and import operations, at Dibden Bay between Hythe and Marchwood.

When the Dibden Bay inquiry continued looking at the aspects of noise and vibration yesterday, there were suggestions that inspector Michael Hurley and his deputy Andrew Phillipson should take a look at the kind of ship that would be involved in the ro-ro activities.

Mr Phillipson quickly made it clear that the two had visited a ship involved in ro-ro and other operations and had also gone along Goatee Beach in the north-western corner of Southampton Water to see and hear the shipping activities from the water's edge.

Goatee is almost opposite the present Southampton Container Terminal and Mr Phillipson said: "We did notice something very prominent that could have been a ship's generator coming from the Southampton Container Terminal."

On the question of further visits to ships to check on the noise they made while in port, he said: "That is something which could be done in a lunchtime when there was a suitable ship moored alongside. In fact, we could take a meter with us."

Meanwhile, a noise expert assured the inquiry that modern methods of pile-driving would cut the amount of disturbance caused by the construction work if the Bay plan was given the go-ahead.

Rupert Thornely-Taylor, who is giving evidence on behalf of Southampton Docks operator Associated British Ports, did concede that there would be some disturbance to people living nearby at certain stages of the construction work.

But he told the inquiry that it would be less noisy that some previous piling operations.

Referring to a previous pile-driving, he agreed under cross examination from Hythe Marina Residents and Hythe Marina Village counsel Tom Hill that the noise would be unacceptable if the same methods were used today.

Mr Hill suggested that that when pile-driving was taking place close to the Marina, residents would have disturbance not only from noise in the air but also from vibration coming through the ground.

But Mr Thornely-Taylor contested that theory.

He pointed out that noise and vibration travelled at different speeds and because they arrived at slightly different times they did not have the same impact.