THE OWNERS of Castlepoint Shopping Park have been told to expect “stringent and strict” conditions to minimize disruption to residents during the rebuild of the centre’s car park.

As reported in the Daily Echo, the owners of the shopping centre, based in the Strouden Park area of Bournemouth, recently unveiled a five-year phased plan to demolish the existing failed car park and replace it with a new one.

After details of the plans were presented to Bournemouth Borough Council’s Planning Board on Monday evening, David Kelsey, chairman of the board, warned there were likely to be strict conditions imposed by the council regarding working hours, noise levels and methods of working.

Cllr Kelsey said: “We really must not let the residents of Bournemouth be inconvenienced any more than they already have been over the past nine years.”

Peter Matthews, general manager at the shopping centre, said it would take between four and five years to rebuild the car park and walkways leading up to the shops.

The multi-million pound scheme will see new temporary car parks built behind the park to provide extra parking spaces during the works. Mike Nisbet, development manager at Standard Life Investments, told the board the new car park would be built using a steel frame and work could begin as early as January next year, subject to planning permission being granted.

When asked why the original structure failed and what was being done to ensure it doesn’t happen again, Mr Nisbet said: “We will provide a better structure. There were a number of problems with the exiting car park and it has taken up nine years to establish exactly what went wrong and find the best way to sort them out.”

Urging the council to deal with the application as quickly as possible, Mr Matthews said: “We hope to have a decision at the earliest opportunity. The sooner we get on with it the sooner we can all benefit from the new car park.”

A full planning application is due to be submitted to the council at the end of this month.