A PUBLIC inquiry has been given a last-ditch warning that if the New Forest becomes a National Park, it will be the most densely populated of all the parks in the UK.

Brockenhurst resident and businesswoman Olive Collins told the planning inquiry at Lyndhurst that the proposed National Park area of just 670 square kilometres contained 60,000 people.

Mrs Collins, who runs a shop and bike hire business at the Wagon Centre with her husband Lionel and has lived in the Forest for over 50 years, said that this would add up to a density of 89.5 people per kilometre.

There was a danger that national park status would attract "even more visitors to an overcrowded area".

She added: "There is a terrible risk that a standard national park will cause more problems than it will solve."

The penultimate day of the public inquiry was also marked by a call from the Council for National Parks for New Forest District Council and Hampshire County Council to be stripped of their control over the planning and minerals and waste issues inside the National Park boundary.

Heart of the matter - See today's Spotlight feature on pages 8 & 9 of the Southern Daily Echo and at http://www.thisissouthampton.co.uk/hampshire/southampton/more_news/spotlight.html.