THE chief executive of Dorset Wildlife Trust has condemned plans to build an oil rig in Poole Bay over concerns about the amount of drilling waste that will be dumped in the sea.

Dr Simon Cripps says the bay is the “last place we should allow oil drilling” due to the risk it poses to the marine environment.

Oil exploration firm Corallian is seeking permission to drill an appraisal well less than 10 miles off the Dorset coast near Bournemouth beach. The rig would be in place for some 40 days between mid-April and June, and September and December, so as to avoid the summer season.

The oil would be extracted horizontally from Wytch Farm in Poole Harbour.

Objections to the proposals have already been made by naturalists and wildlife presenters including Kate Humble and Chris Packham, who signed a letter by local resident Stuart Lane.

Dr Cripps said the plans were “far from acceptable and completely unnecessary” from an environmental perspective.

“A clean, healthy Dorset, and Poole Bay in particular, is vital for the tourism, commercial fishing, aquaculture, boating, angling and transport industries. Add to that the resources we get from the sea or the fish, shellfish, dolphins and seals, sea birds, seaweeds and habitats such as rocky reefs, sandy gullies and seagrass beds, and you have a real concentration of riches between Old Harry and Hengistbury Head.”

He said while drilling on land at Wytch Farm, the largest onshore oil field in Western Europe, was “carefully regulated and impacts very restricted”, it was “much easier to do on land than out at sea”.

He also questioned why oil drilling “in such a rich and important area” was acceptable when “local interests stopped the development of the Navitus Bay wind farm, which was a far more benign and environmentally valuable project”.

“Personally, especially with drill cuttings and muds being dumped into the sea, I just can’t see this project as being necessary for society and too great a risk for the environment and community in Poole, Bournemouth and Purbeck,” he said.

“I therefore hope the authorities will not grant the necessary licences, or in the very least require environmental standards appropriate for this sensitive, valuable and important site. Now is the time we need to stand up for wildlife.”