THERE have been a lot of views about Dibden Bay lately.

What we must not forget is that Dibden Bay was once a place for migratory birds, particularly waterfowl and other types as a first stopover before continuing on their way, from small waders to all types of geese.

The laws were easily bypassed by big business in those days and it was quite easy for the docks board to build a dyke and fill in the bay with the dredgings from the main channel. Not so easy nowadays.

When I was a very young boy, my father would row us across the water to net for the fish in the shallow waters of the bay, the sky and the marsh was filled with every bird you could think of, but it was not long before it was all gone.

Big business has done enough damage to this country and the bay is now filled with another type of wildlife, I say leave it alone to flourish.

Besides, the docks are now owned by foreign companies and there may be an initial influx of work to cover it in concrete, but after that it will be a minimal amount of employees to run it.

And what would they do with all the millions of tonnes of dredged mud to let the ships in?

Maybe they have their eye on another piece of marsh to take away from the waterfront. This mud and sedge also contains its own ecosystem, and mother nature needs it.

The bay should never have been filled in, in the first place. It was also a nesting ground for every type of British water bird imaginable, all gone and we won’t get it back.

There are still a few turnstone and others nesting on a hereditory basis in isolated pieces of grass inside of Dock Gate 4. This is now happening in Dibden Bay, but they have more room. Leave them alone.

On another note, the docks board waited for years to find a tangible excuse to stop the anglers from using the docks, they now use Dibden Bay waterfront and a few other isolated spots. This will be stopped.

We must think of what happens to the water in the upper stretches of the Test. Before all this dredging the water was held back to a degree by the mass of water in the lower stretches. Now at low tide, the water pours out of the river and falls into a hole.

The river empties faster and becomes lower than it has done in ages. I can remember reed islands that have disappeared completely since the main channel was dredged.

Leave our waterfront alone!

JAMES WYATT, Lordshill, Southampton.