DEAN Park Cricket Ground in Bournemouth will no longer be able to host club cricket if new plans are approved.

Owner Dean Park Cricket Ltd, which bought the site from the Cooper Dean Estate in 2014, wants to build three all-weather pitches around the northern and eastern edges of the existing cricket ground.

The firm says its plans will reduce the size of the boundary field to an extent it will no longer be usable for competitive/club cricket.

The company, which has "close ties" with the independent Park School, says in its application that previous users Dorset County and Parley cricket clubs were offered the use of the ground at "a very low rent" but ceased to use it in 2016.

"Some harm to the significance of the cricket ground may result from the ending of its potential use for competitive/club cricket," the planning statement says.

"Such harm is less than substantial and outweighed by the significant benefits of the development.

"Furthermore, junior cricket will continue to be played at the grounds, sustaining part of its historic use."

The company says the site's facilities will remain "available as a venue for local clubs, local schools and for training sessions" when not in use by Park School.

The former home of Dorset and Hampshire county cricket clubs, the ground has a Grade II listed pavilion, built in 1902, which was last year converted into the Dean Park Day Nursery.

The all-weather pitches would measure 40m x 35m and are intended for football, netball and hockey, with construction likely to take 15 weeks.

Back in April last year, Parley Cricket Club said it had sought to continue using the ground and, although Dean Park Cricket Ltd had offered the use of the site rent-free, it feared rising costs in future.

Then-chairman Graham Stickland said the Park School's decision to lease the pavilion to a nursery, leading to limitations on the use of the pitch, had forced the club to back out of the negotiations.

"I think cricket will stop there forthwith," he said at the time.

"We are disappointed, for Bournemouth and for local cricket, but Park School own it and have their plans and what more can one say."

Then, the directors of Dean Park Cricket Ltd said: "When we bought Dean Park our hopes were to preserve the site and to give Park School a large area of grass and pitches where pupils can play sport.

"We also planned to try and keep the ground as a good quality venue for cricket. To this end we have refurbished the square, the outfield and the perimeter.

"Dean Park is a lovely green site in the middle of Bournemouth and we are working very hard to keep it that way."