AMBITIOUS eco-friendly plans for a new building to relocate more than 100 council workers have been unveiled for the New Forest.

The district council is "testing the water" with its proposals for a new building next to its offices at Appletree Court, Lyndhurst, to bring all its employees to one location.

The council's staff are currently split between two sites - Appletree Court and Lymington Town Hall - and the organisation wants them all to be in one place.

The plan is for a two-storey building on the south side of the Appletree Court site, with a 47-space car park underneath to add to the current 237 spaces.

The 1,500 square foot building, which would be timber clad and have a green vegetated roof, would accommodate 100 workers.

Councillor Colin Wise, the district council's portfolio holder for finance and efficiency, said: "We are hoping to make the whole council more efficient by having everyone in the same office.

Options "We don't know, without a lot of investigation, where that will be as we have two options - Lyndhurst and Lymington - but we can't fit everyone into either at the moment.

"We have no knowledge of the National Park Authority's reaction to expanding Apple-tree Court. This application is a test run to find out."

He explained not all staff would be relocated from Lymington Town Hall - some would stay to run the public information centre.

Between 150 and 200 staff, many of whom are part-time, would move to Lyndhurst.

Currently 200 full-time and 116 part-time staff work at Appletree Court. The new building would provide space for 260 full-time and 196 part- time - or the equivalent of 100 more full-time.

Cllr Wise added: "We have taken a great deal of care to consider environmental matters in the application, such as making the building environmentally-friendly and acceptable to the neighbourhood, so I am fairly hopeful we will get approval."

New Forest National Park Authority is due to consider the application, which is currently only in outline form, on June 2.

Detailed drawings and plans will be submitted if the proposal is successful.