HEALTH chiefs have been given permission to house key staff beside a multi-million-pound mental unit on the edge of the New Forest.

West Hampshire NHS Trust has received consent to provide housing at Loperwood Manor, part of the former Tatchbury Mount hospital site near Totton.

The flats will be occupied by staff working at the new unit, members of the district council's planning and development control committee were told.

Planning officer Chris Elliott referred to fears among local residents that the 36-bed complex will result in extra traffic using narrow country roads.

He asked: "What could be better than having staff live next door to where they work? It will reduce the number of car journeys to and from the area."

Brockenhurst councillor Maureen Holding voiced similar views.

She said: "One of the big arguments against the site is traffic, but if you put key workers next door to the hospital there won't be so many vehicle movements."

Cllr Holding said the scheme would also ease the dearth of mental health staff in the area.

She said: "There's a desperate shortage of nurses, doctors and key social workers. One of the reasons they can't settle in this area is that housing is so expensive."

The proposal supersedes a previous plan to provide a halfway house for people recovering from mental illness, councillors were told.

Cllr Holding added: "It's far better that people undergoing rehabilitation are moved away from the hospital."

Under the new scheme eight homes for key workers will be provided in a listed building known as the Clock House.

A report to councillors said: "Recruitment and retention of staff essential to the public services has been identified as the most appropriate use of the building."

Work on the new mental health unit will start later this month. Including the conversion of the Clock House, it will cost £4.7m.