PROPOSALS to demolish a former nursery and build a block of offices in the New Forest National Park have been thrown out by planners.

The application for Hollins Nursery, on Sway Road, Pennington sought to construct a single storey building, comprising of 11 units with parking for up to 25 vehicles.

If approved the scheme would have seen the demolition of the existing buildings on the site.

However, a New Forest National Park Authority planning officer refused the scheme.

A report produced by case officer Liz Young's said: "The proposed office units, parking and access would constitute an undesirable and unjustified form of development in this part of the New Forest National Park, which would have an adverse visual impact upon the intrinsic character of the site and the rural street scene."

She added that the size, scale and design of the buildings would "fail to respect" the rural characteristics of the site and the proposed access would only heighten this issue.

An application for a new access to the site was refused in February 2016 and a proposed change of use from agricultural building to a flexible use within shops, financial and professional services, restaurants and cafes, business, storage and distribution, hotel or assembly and leisure was turned down in August 2015.