A MILLENNIUM bridge will cost Gosport council £6,000 more than expected - because it was thought a licence application was just a technicality.

The council and May Gurney Construction Ltd from Norwich were prosecuted by the Ministry of Agricul-ture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) over work at the Forton Lake Opening bridge last year.

Both pleaded guilty to dumping material without a licence but blamed delays by MAFF and a change of heart by English Nature for their actions.

The court heard that a temporary causeway of rubble was put down across an estuary during the building, but without the licence needed from MAFF.

Lawyers for the council and May Gurney said no real damage had been caused, despite the work being done during what English Nature had designated as an over-wintering period for birds.

Speaking for the council, Kirsten Houghton said English Nature had originally decided no work should happen from December to March but t changed that period to October to February.

She said work would then not have started until March 2001 and could have cost the entire millennium project.

A decision was made to go ahead in late September 1999 and council millennium project director Ron Wilson told the court he had thought the licence was only administrative.

Alan Kefford, acting for May Gurney, said an expert report showed water in the lake was already highly polluted and there was no evidence that the causeway, which is now being removed, had damaged the environment.

But magistrates decided that while MAFF should have dealt with the licence application more quickly, the council and company should not have gone ahead without permission.

The company and council were each fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £318 costs.