Brockenhurst is to get ten new affordable homes - on condition that they are only ever sold to local people.

Developer The Hyde Group has been granted permission for six one-bed flats, two three-bed homes and two two-bed homes, with parking, on land at Vinney Close.

The site, which borders the railway line, falls outside the village boundary, and so can only be used for affordable housing.

But local residents and the parish council had raised concerns about flooding, saying ground water levels at the site were too high.

One neighbour wrote: "The site supervisor of Rok Construction, who built the first phase, said that it was the wettest site he had ever worked on. If solving the drainage problem was that easy then HCC Highways would have been able to solve the flooding problems at the end of Mill Lane, and the Balmer Lawn Road railway bridge."

But in a report to the New Forest National Park Authority's planning committee, officers said that the developer's survey suggested that the ground water was lower than in other areas, and that the lower levels were more permeable.

And the report also concluded that, despite Brockenhurst Parish Council's fears over the number of one bed flats, the mix of units was acceptable because there are 31 people waiting for single room accommodation in the New Forest.

It said: "As the proposal is for affordable housing, the occupancy of the scheme, would be controlled by a section 106 agreement [which] would ensure that the dwellings would be occupied by persons with a local connection to the parish in perpetuity.'

The report also concluded that the developer's drainage strategy would be enough to tackle the question of flooding, and that any loss of wildlife habitat could be offset by fencing off the lower part of the site as a conservation area to include bat boxes and bird nesting structures.

Committee members agreed to grant permission for the scheme, subject to the local connection condition. A range of other conditions covering materials, safeguarding of trees, and restrictions on external lighting to protect 'dark skies' and rules preventing any future changes or extensions to the completed properties without permission.