Lyndhurst is bracing itself for another 12 months of traffic chaos after it was revealed that a £1m road improvement scheme has been delayed.

Hampshire County Council has agreed to create a right-turn facility on the southbound lane of A326 at Colbury to reduce the number of vehicles converging on Lyndhurst.

However, work on the new junction is unlikely to start until December, which means the village must endure another summer of fumes and jams.

Big tailbacks build up in the area as thousands of holidaymakers come off the M27 at junction 1 and head down the A337.

The new right-turn on the A326 will result in more drivers entering the Forest via the A35 and bypassing the centre of Lyndhurst.

Highway chiefs were hoping to build the facility in time for this year's tourist season.

However, the county council has had to juggle its finances to fund major improvements to the A3 bus route from Waterlooville to Guildford.

The Colbury right-turn has been deferred and is unlikely to be completed until next May - almost a year after it should have been opened.

A row has erupted over the delay, with the county council and the Government Office for the South East (GoSE) blaming each other for the hold-up.

The county council says Whitehall went back on its pledge to fund the A3 scheme, but GoSE claims the authority started work without waiting for government approval.

Now money earmarked for the A326 project has had to be diverted to the A3 work.

Mel Kendal, a Lyndhurst county councillor and leader of New Forest Council, said: "We couldn't pull out of the A3 scheme half-way through.

"We had hoped to have the new A326 junction up and running by June or July, but it now looks as if work won't start until December at the earliest."

The news will please Ashurst and Colbury residents, who are dreading the prospect of an extra 4,000 vehicles streaming past their homes every day.

But Lyndhurst councillor Pat Wyeth hit out at the delay.

She said: "It's a great disappointment and means the village is facing another summer of traffic chaos. The fumes that build up in the High Street are unacceptable."

County council leader Ken Thornber confirmed that work on the Colbury right-turn was unlikely to start for another seven or eight months.

He added: "GoSE said the A3 scheme should qualify for direct government grant and we took that as a pretty good hint that it would get approval."

The county council is now making a second attempt to secure funding for the project.

A GoSE spokesman said: "If a local authority starts to build something without waiting for government approval, it has to use its own money."