Fishermen coming in from the river have to sail in to the slipway, often in darkness. It is also used to launch pleasure and sailing boats.

The new pontoon would mean they could moor their boats away from the central slipway avoiding the public walkway and decking.

But yachtsmen who use the hard are concerned a new pontoon could be dangerous and that it will limit the passage through which sailing boats travel to get out on to the river.

Cliff Norbury from the Warsash Sailing Club told Fareham Council's planning committee: "Warsash Hard is by far the most important site for launching pleasure boats on to the river. The pontoon will really restrict this. The boats water space will be halved."

He added that the pontoon, which will be 90m long and 2m wide, could be dangerous as it would be unsupervised.

"We have no hesitation in saying that this pontoon could potentially become a death trap, " claimed Norbury. "It will be accessible to the general public and will not be supervised. Anybody falling off a pontoon would have great difficulty getting back on again."

But planning committee vice chairman Councillor Arthur Mandry said if planning experts deemed it safe, they must accept that.