NATURE conservation plans to increase bogs in the New Forest have gone too far, risking flood damage to homes, a councillor has warned.

Councillor John Clark from Brockenhurst said the Forestry Commission and English Nature were united in a "conspiracy" to turn more and more of the Forest into mire.

He told fellow Brockenhurst residents he was worried for the future of their village - a potential flood black spot at a "junction point" of Forest waterways.

Water watchdog the Environment Agency took the danger so seriously it launched a Brockenhurst flood defence plan in 1990 - widening the riverbed to increase its capacity and raising bridges downstream.

Cllr Clark said that since the mid-1990s, however, conservation policies to increase wetland throughout the Forest meant the flood risk had not gone away.

"The Forest is getting wetter year by year. No ditches are cleared. River beds are rising by up to 18 inches in some places," he told the annual parish meeting at Brockenhurst village hall.

"I hate to think what our great-grandchildren will say about the things we allowed to happen."

North Weirs resident Brian Small added: "The plan to put back the wetlands has gone too far. Brockenhurst common is wet through."

But Russell Wright of English Nature said the five-year, EU-sponsored LIFE project to restore some of Europe's rarest bog habitats had worked well, and people had to take a longer perspective on the issue. "The Forest has suffered enormous damage over the last century because of widespread drainage works," he said.

"We and the Forestry Commission try and work in a sensitive way, in consultation with other Forest groups like the commoners and Verderers.

"Clearly, any risk to the health and safety of local residents is unacceptable," said Mr Wright.