PLANS to bulldoze a historic Hampshire hotel and transform the site have been hit by a delay caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

An application to replace most of the Lyndhurst Park Hotel with 77 homes, eight holiday apartments and five shops was due to be submitted this month.

But the New Forest National Park Authority (NPA) is being asked to allow the security fences surrounding the site to remain until October next year.

Known as hoardings, the fences were erected after the derelict hotel was repeatedly targeted by thieves and vandals.

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In a letter to the NPA, Chapman Lily Planning, representing the owners, Hoburne Development, says: "The current Covid-19 emergency has resulted in this request for the hoardings to be place for a further 18 months - the implication being that the planning application and construction programme has been delayed.

"The retention of the hoardings is necessary to deter further trespass and anti-social behaviour in advance of the future development of the site."

A Hoburne spokesperson added: “Due to the current climate and the time it will now take to get through the planning process, we must keep the site secure for a longer period than we first anticipated."

Plans to demolish most of the hotel were unveiled two months ago, when Hoburne vowed to save the most historic part of the building.

The company confirmed that the facade, designed with the help of legendary author Arthur Conan Doyle, would be retained and converted into holiday apartments. Conan Doyle, creator of the famous Sherlock Holmes, was a frequent visitor to Lyndhurst.

The site was at the centre of a long-running battle between planners and its previous owners.

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An application by PegasusLife to replace the building with 74 sheltered apartments and a dozen holiday homes was rejected by the NPA.

A subsequent proposal for 75 flats and 15 affordable homes was also turned down after sparking 800 objections.

Protesters included the Victorian Society, which said: "The former Lyndhurst Park Hotel currently stands as the only remaining building designed by Arthur Conan Doyle.

"Archive material shows Conan Doyle visiting in 1912 and by autumn that year the hotel had been transformed, with a third floor extension and new façade, all designed by Conan Doyle."

The hotel has been branded an eyesore since it closed in 2014. Earlier this year part of the complex collapsed.