A HAMPSHIRE holiday park firm has opened its seventh site.

The opening of New Forest Lodge Retreat underlines the recent growth of Shorefield Holidays, which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year.

Paul Searle, chairman of the British Holiday and Home Parks Association, was invited to officially open the new park on the edge of the New Forest National Park and to plant one of the many new trees to further enhance the park in line with the David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme.

The New Forest Lodge Retreat – formerly Kelston Holiday Park – is next door to Shorefield Country Park and close to Milford-on-Sea.

It is envisaged that the lodge park will be an exclusive, gated community for owners, who will be able to choose a selection of luxury boutique lodges.

Simon Pollock, chairman and managing director of Shorefield Holidays, says: “The opening of the New Forest Lodge Retreat is part of our strategy for growth. The rising popularity of the staycation and families purchasing holiday homes as a long-term cost-cutting move, together with our desire to ‘make every weekend a holiday’, remains a key development area for the business moving forward.”

Shorefield Country Park recently received gold in the David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme, one of the longest running green tourism awards in the UK.

Winners are decided on a number of criteria, including managing land as a haven for wildlife, supporting local communities and reducing the use of resources such as energy and water.

Shorefield Country Park was also awarded the scheme’s Honey Bee Pledge for its dedication to preserving Britain’s bees.

There are four hives on the site and areas to ensure the bee population is well looked after, a tradition started by the firm’s founder Dr Robert Pollock.