PLANNERS have given the New Forest a major boost by approving a scheme that will pump £1.5m a year into the local economy.

Hampshire businessman Alex Aitken has drawn up proposals to turn Le Poussin at Parkhill into the New Forest Heritage Area's first five-star hotel.

The former country house at Beaulieu Road, Lyndhurst, will be equipped with a new restaurant and health spa, plus indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

Mr Aitken is also planning to increase the number of bedrooms from 23 to 32.

A report to the district council's planning and development control committee said: "The applicant is proposing to rebuild much of the existing accommodation, including the outbuildings. The intention is to retain the main core of the original building and to off-set this with new additions of a contemporary design.

"It's a very innovative approach to the redevelopment and upgrading of an existing hotel."

Mr Aitken's representative, Richard Casemore, told the committee that the new-look hotel would pump £1.5m a year into the local economy.

Le Poussin at Parkhill will be the only five-star hotel in the heritage area. The five-star Chewton Glen, near New Milton, is in the area administered by the district council, but is not in the Forest itself.

Tony Climpson, the council's tourism manager, said: "We have only 33 hotels in the district and most of them are very small. Le Poussin at Parkhill is already a hugely important asset to the Forest's tourist industry. This scheme is a major opportunity to provide a quality benchmark for other hotels in the area - the Chewton Glen apart - to aim at."

The committee chairman, Lyndhurst councillor Pat Wyeth, said Mr Aitken's latest application was an improvement on a previous proposal that was rejected last year.