A CYCLE and pedestrian route that could ease parking concerns at a newly opened Hampshire hospital will not be finished until May, the Daily Echo can reveal.

The green £120,000 developer funded scheme was drawn up to provide residents with safer and easier access to the £36m Lymington New Forest Hospital and Ampress business park on the outskirts of town.

Hampshire County Council previously said it was due to start work on the ten-week project in January.

But a spokesman admitted: "It is intended that tender documents for the scheme will be sent out later this month and that works can commence in March 2007."

It is a blow to many local hospital staff, patients and visitors wanting to ditch their cars, buses and taxis.

Unions and local councillors have already blasted the parking at the 107-bed hospital as inadequate and say staff have no guarantee of a space.

The state-of-the-art hospital, set to become the first ever to be run by a private company from July, has 205 parking spaces.

Only 85 are for the 400 staff that work there, with 120 payable spaces for patients and visitors.

The Hampshire NHS Primary Care Trust said there has been a high turnover of cars but plenty of spaces available and patients are being treated quickly.

However it is already in talks about using nearby land for more parking.

The shared footway and cycle track will be built between the hospital and Avenue Road near the town centre Another link will be to Campion Way and the Lymington Meadows housing estate.

The new routes will utilise an old railway underpass to get from Ampress park to the A337 Southampton Road.

At its roundabout junction with the B3054 the cycle/pedestrian route will split, one following Southampton Road to Lower Buckland Road where a left turn will take users to the Borough Arms in Avenue Road.

From there it is a short walk or ride via Barfields and New Street to the High Street.

The other route will take users alongside the B3054 Marsh Lane to Campion Way with a dropped kerb at a safe crossing point.

Various challenges A Hampshire County Council spokesman said the design process had presented "various challenges" including consultation with "all the necessary stakeholders, access licence agreements with Network Rail and The Western Challenge Housing Association, plus three Independent Safety Audits" among others.

The spokesman added: "While the purpose of the Hampshire County Council scheme is to improve accessibility between the Ampress Industrial Park and Lymington Town Centre for pedestrians and cyclists, the programme for the scheme is independent to any other works."