A HOTELIER is celebrating winning grant aid that will help her get power from water to help pay growing electricity bills.

Liz Cottingham, proprietor of The Mill at Gordleton near Sway, submitted a successful application to the New Forest National Park Authority in a bid to cut her £25,000 annual bill by a quarter.

The cost of taking out the rusty old turbine, replacing it with a carbon fibre water wheel, linking it to a generator and putting in a fish passage is expected to be about £60,000.

"It's really brilliant news. We're going to get £23,000 towards it," said Mrs Cottingham.

The NPA is actually providing 30 per cent of the cost, or £22,373.

Mrs Cottingham is also investigating installing a heat exchanger in the Avon Water river which is expected to reduce her £10,000 gas bill for water heating by about 80 per cent.

A NPA spokesman said: "The mill will be a flagship scheme demonstrating the sustainable use of energy in the commercial sector as well as acting as a role model for the other 240 water mills in Hampshire."

The NPA has also provided £20,000 from its sustainable development fund towards the cost of 10 electric-powered pollution-free cars with a maximum speed of 45mph to be operated by the Electric Vehicle Hire scheme based in Burley.

Five cars will be located in Burley, three in Brockenhurst and two in Lymington.

Also to receive funding is the RSPB's Aren't Birds Brilliant! Scheme, to be run in conjunction with the NPA and Forestry Commission.

It will provide visitors to the commission's Holidays Hill Reptile Centre with live pictures of honey buzzards and goshawks on their nests at sites around the forest.

The £19,909 given will pay for next season's operation of the video links.

More money (£21,218) will go towards the installation of a district heating system at Ipley Manor Farm near Marchwood, £1,123 towards the establishment of the Friends of Lepe Country Park and the Environment Centre in Southampton will get about £10,000 for its BioMap project which aims to develop the fuel wood market in the forest.

Sustainable Development Fund officer Claire Gingell said all the projects have a positive effect on the environment and well-being of the forest.