A NEW junction making it easier for traffic to get into the New Forest could be completed by early next summer.

A Hampshire council committee heard this week that tenders for the £1.3m Colbury right turn scheme near Ashurst will be going out this month.

Highways engineer Jonathan Crabb said that work on the right turn, taking vehicles from the southbound A326 to the westbound A35, should begin in January, with completion in May or June.

The scheme is likely to take thousands of vehicles away from the Lyndhurst High Street bottleneck every day.

Because it will mean extra traffic through Ashurst on the A35, traffic calming measures have also been included.

Full public consultation will be carried out to allay fears about traffic tailbacks while the work is under way.

The traffic calming work would have less impact in terms of hold-ups, the panel heard, than the work at the junction itself, which includes a slip road and traffic lights.

On the question of hold-ups, Fawley's county councillor John Coles said: "There are problems without those roadworks and it took me 35 minutes to cover 200 metres this morning."

At present, Forest-bound A326 traffic must turn left towards Southampton and then make a U-turn at the Rushington roundabout before heading westwards.

The scheme will also provide a more direct route along the A326 and A35 to Lyndhurst and the New Forest and will help reduce traffic through the residential area of Foxhills, an officers' report said.