CONTROVERSIAL plans to build a new school in the New Forest for 60 children with special educational needs have been given the go-ahead.

Civic chiefs have approved an application to redevelop a multi-use games area next door to the Phoenix Youth Centre in Culver Road, New Milton.

The applicants have been given permission for a temporary school that will occupy the land for two years.

Members of the district council’s planning committee heard that the authority would also receive an application to create a permanent school by converting and extending the Phoenix building.

The application for a temporary school had been opposed by people living in neighbouring Culver Road.

They said the proposed development would create extra traffic problems in the area, which is next door to The Arnewood School, and called for the creation of a new access linking the site with Gore Road.

Andrew and Naomi Jones were among those who wrote letters of objection to the council.

They wrote: “The road is not designed to support this extra volume of traffic, including lorries involved in construction.

“We feel a separate access point via Gore Road would be safer and more practical for all concerned.”

Fellow objector Mike Pearce added: “Siting the school at the Phoenix Centre and then using a narrow road like Culver Road as its sole access is ludicrous.”

Similar comments were made by several members of the committee when they debated the plan.

Cllr David Harrison said: “Culver Road is a cul-de-sac and schools are not best situated at the end of a cul-de-sac.”

Cllr Fran Carpenter added: “I think the amount of traffic generated by the scheme will be too much. I can see this being a nightmare for residents.”

But councillors were told that the local highways authority, Hampshire County Council, was happy with the scheme.

The committee chairman, Cllr Diane Andrews, said: “I feel for the residents but if we reject this application and it goes to appeal we won’t have a leg to stand on.”

Cllr Maureen Holding, a retired teacher, supported the proposal.

She said: “The school is very much needed and this is one of the best places to put the facility. It will be a good use of an existing educational site.”

Cllr Pat Wyeth added: “We desperately need schools like this. Children with special needs deserve to have as good an education as everyone else.”