A DECISION on a proposed ‘meet and greet’ car parking service to rival Bournemouth Airport’s facilities has been deferred.

The council was set to decide on BOMO Parking Ltd’s application at a meeting last night, but it was withdrawn from the agenda to allow further comments on highways considerations.

The scheme would see the company collect customers’ cars from the airport and take them to the theme park site, before meeting the passenger on their return with the vehicle.

Prior to the meeting, a report written by planning officer Kim Bowditch had recommended the plans be refused.

“The proposal constitutes an intensification of use and thus inappropriate development within the green belt, which would have an adverse impact,” she said.

“It is further recommended that, as the submission of the application follows investigations undertaken by the council’s planning enforcement team, enforcement action be instigated to seek cessation of the use of the site to provide ancillary parking for users of Bournemouth Airport.”

John Smith, managing director of BOMO issued a statement this morning, which said: “The council made the decision to defer the application to next month’s planning committee, as they have had serious delays in administering our application and did not receive information they were waiting on from Dorset County Council.”

“Only yesterday were we asked to provide further information to Dorset County Councils Transport Team.

“And as our car parking service reduces the overall amount of journeys on the road network; instead of taxis or friends and family driving to and fro from home and the airport, our customers with accessibility issues have the option of driving right up to the terminal.

“So our service actually reduces the overall amount of journeys on the road network by two, so we are confident this will not be a stumbling block and the planning committee will take a common-sense approach in approving our plans to use an existing car park to park cars.”

Bournemouth Airport bosses have been critical of the plans, citing the lack of regulation companies that offer ‘meet and greet’ parking are subject to.

Speaking in March, a Bournemouth Airport spokesman said: “Cars are driven away from the airport and parked in areas with very few, if any, security measures.

“We received a lot of complaints last year about ‘off airport parking’ but, as these companies operate independently of the airport, unfortunately we have no way of helping those who have booked with them.”