RESIDENTS will make an 11th hour bid on Thursday (January 24) to kill off parking restrictions planned for a major Poole road.

Although the Borough of Poole dropped proposals to ban parking near the foot of North Road, it is pushing ahead with plans to remove most of the parking further up the hill.

But residents of that stretch of the road fear the plans will increase traffic speeds as well as making life difficult for occupants of flats. They are planning to submit a last-minute petition to cabinet member Cllr Xena Dion, the cabinet member responsible for transport.

The council proposals were a response to requests from Wilts and Dorset, which said its buses were being held up on the route.

North Road resident Deb Smith said: “This is already a fast road. The speed warning sign is ignored all the time. The new measures involve removing the parked cars that act to slow the traffic.

“In other areas the council is paying out to install traffic calming, yet on North Road, also a residential road it has seemingly bowed to pressure from Wilts and Dorset.”

She said there would not be enough parking for residents of the road’s flats. And she said people using new playing fields on North Road would have nowhere to park.

Officers are advising Cllr Dion that “for the most part, properties have sufficient off-road parking”. They say the aim is to encourage more people to use buses and cycles between Bournemouth and Poole town centres.

A report to Cllr Dion, who is due to sign off a decision on Thursday, said the scheme sought to achieve an “acceptable balance” between the council’s duty to manage the road network and the need to accommodate residents’ parking needs.