Last week, port operator DP World signed a £400m deal with a joint venture between Laing O'Rourke and Belgian specialist Dredging International, to build the UK's first deep-water port for more than 20 years.

Carillion will reconstruct 26 mudflats that will be lost through the construction of the new port.

The London Gateway container port and business park will be built on the former Shell oil refinery site at Shell Haven in the Thames Estuary, Thurrock.

It will also be the world's most advanced container port and Europe's largest logistics park.

But for work to begin a number of new mudflats for the thousands of birds that visit this area of south Essex must be created.

Mudflats are created when sediment is deposited by the tides and are important for wildlife, particularly migratory birds.