BUILDING work on a long-awaited 120-bedroom hotel on the outskirts of Winchester should start within six months.

City council planners approved a revised scheme next to the INTECH complex at Morn Hill. Planners had already approved two previous applications for a hotel there, the first one in the late 1980s.

Neither project was put into action, but developer Geoff Williams of Morn Hill Ltd hopes to start work this June.

The hotel will provide relatively cheap rooms in a city which has plenty of upmarket hotels such as Hotel du Vin, the Wessex and the Royal.

But lingering concerns have been raised by Itchen Valley Parish Council chairman Alison Matthews, who said the hotel would spoil the beauty of the area.

"We would like to see a building which would improve this gateway to the city, and we don't feel that this building does."

John Hearn, planning team leader, said the hotel would be built in a hollow next to the Percy Hobbs roundabout.

"The impact of this building will be very low," he said.

Eloise Appleby, head of tourism at the council, said there the Morn Hill hotel would fill the gap for low-cost accommodation in the city.

"It will make a trip to Winchester more affordable for many," she said.

Councillor Patrick Davies said he was worried about building a hotel on the outskirts of Winchester. He speculated that guests would drive into the city to see the attractions, creating extra traffic.

Councillor Ian Tait said: "This site is bad enough as it is. Adding further buildings is just making it worse."

Councillors voted 11 to three in favour of the scheme.

Mr Williams had altered the scheme and applied to drop the requirement to build sports and conference facilities.

After the meeting, Chris Ward of Bryan Jezeph Consultancy, acting for Mr Williams, said there was only one major hurdle before construction begins.

The government must decide whether to examine the scheme, owing to its size and sensitive location.