CPRE Hampshire volunteers put a great deal of effort into participating in the Inquiry and demonstrated to the best of their ability:

• The importance of the New Forest to Hampshire and Hampshire people and the devastating impact that the proposed Terminal would have on the New Forest and the proposed National Park
  
  
• That there are alternative and less damaging sites elsewhere
  
  
• That Southampton Port would not suffer terminal decline if Dibden Bay were not developed
  
  
• That the jobs created at a container terminal at Dibden Bay would go largely to in-migrants to Hampshire
  
  
• That the evidence given at the Inquiry had shown that a refusal is justified on sound planning principles

The Inspectors' recommendation, due last October, has not yet been produced, but in the meantime it has been announced that the Deputy Prime Minster will make no decision on Dibden Bay until he has had the opportunity of studying the evidence given in a public inquiry relating to a similar proposal at Shellhaven on the Thames.

CPRE Hampshire argued strongly that Shellhaven was an alternative site in an acknowledged regeneration area that consists mainly of previously developed land, and one where a large container terminal could be built without wholly unsustainable impact that Dibden Bay would have on the designated New Forest National Park, Southampton Water and Southampton City. So, the announcement from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minster would appear to be a case of 'good news so far'.

May 2004