THE results of a new survey of the usage of a Bournemouth car park earmarked for development have been revealed.

A bid by the partly council-owned Bournemouth Development Company (BDC) to build a five-storey block of 44 flats on the Durley Road car park in West Cliff was rejected by the planning board in June last year.

But a further bid is expected and, according to a Freedom of Information request, the council commissioned a survey from Streetwise which was carried out in November last year.

The survey, carried out outside the summer tourist season, showed the car park was under its capacity of 119 cars throughout the day.

The largest number of vehicles, around 90, were present between 9am and 3pm – about 75 per cent full.

There were 75 vehicles present between 8-9am, 71 between 3-4pm, and 55 between 4-5pm. At other times the number of parked cars was just above 30. The data indicates that the majority of vehicles stopped for one hour or less, although there were several which remained on the site for 12 hours.

The survey is likely to fuel the dispute over the importance of the car park.

Residents, people who work in the area and parents whose children attend nearby St Michael's School have all criticised plans to close and build on the car park, citing its convenience and safety compared with alternatives in West Hill Road and the Avenue car park in the Triangle, which the borough recently purchased.

There were 55 written objections to the original scheme.

Bournemouth council says its programme with BDC, which has seen applications to build on at least four car parks in the town centre, with more in the works, will not see a net loss of public parking spaces.

And BDC, back in November, said it has no obligation to replace parking spaces anyway.

At a planning board briefing on the new plans developed for the site, which have yet to be submitted, John Montgomery from planning consultancy Tanner and Tilley said the site was designated for development in the council's own Town Centre Vision.

"The car park will be lost, it is clearly in your adopted policy. There is no actual policy requirement for the car park to be replaced."