COUNCILLORS worried about plans to dump silt on the foreshore at Hythe are still waiting for the results of trials carried out last year.

Associated British Ports (ABP) intends to carry out a massive dredging operation near the site of its proposed container terminal at Dibden Bay.

ABP plans to create a deep-water channel by removing ten million cubic metres of gravel, silt and clay.

The company is asking the Ministry of Agriculture for consent to deposit a million cubic metres of the silt along the foreshore between Hythe and Cadland.

Its application, which was criticised at a recent meeting of the district planning committee, follows experimental dumping carried out at Hythe last October.

The issue was raised at a full council meeting by members who wanted to know if the trials had been a success or failure.

Council leader Simon Hayes said: "The results are still being analysed and written up, and will be the subject of a report from English Nature.

"To date we've had no official indication of whether the trials were a success or otherwise."

But a council source told the Daily Echo that the trials had been "less than successful".

Any problems identified by the forthcoming report will re-ignite the row over plans to carry out full-scale dumping on the foreshore.

The proposed site is part of a protection area and has also been earmarked as a special conservation area.