HAMPSHIRE County Council has welcomed MPs’ damning verdict on new planning guidance for ports as “not fit for purpose”.

The Government’s proposals would have made it simpler to approve projects like the container terminal at Dibden Bay, defeated at the sort of lengthy planning inquiry the revised planning guidance would have consigned to history.

But the Parliamentary Transport Select Committee has said the plans need “major changes”.

The county council, which has long opposed ABP’s plans for Dibden Bay, told MPs the National Policy Statement on Ports could lead to “disjointed and piecemeal decisions”.

They argued it left development to be “solely led by the commercial market, without adequate co-ordination of plans for roads, rail and the economy”.

Councillor Ken Thornber, leader of the county council, said: “It was vital in light of Associated British Ports’ Master Plan for Southampton and the possible implications this could have for Dibden Bay that we made clear our concerns over the National Policy Statement because this will govern decisions on all port development in the future.”