PLANS to transform a prime waterfront site in Lymington have been hit by another delay.

Council chiefs are still withholding permission for a multi-million-pound proposal which includes 168 homes, a restaurant and a riverside walk.

The developer, Redrow Homes, has still not signed a vital legal agreement which will enable the scheme to proceed.

Construction work at the former Webbs chicken factory site in Bridge Road, Lymington, is now unlikely to start until summer at the earliest.

District councillors met in January and backed proposals to redevelop the seven-acre site.

Planning officers were authorised to approve the application, subject to Redrow agreeing to a long list of conditions by mid-February.

But the deadline passed without a settlement being reached, which meant officers were unable to grant consent.

Redrow stressed negotiations were continuing and forecast the application would be approved at the April meeting of the council’s planning committee.

Permission is now unlikely to be issued until May or June.