THE rejection of Bournemouth council's flats plan for a public car park points to discontent within the ranks of the ruling Tory group, a source claims.

The proposal, which would have seen a block of 44 flats built on the Durley Road car park in West Cliff, was rejected by the planning board last month for a second time.

Members argued that the public parking spaces must be replaced.

A source within the local Conservative group said there was growing discontent with the borough's partnership with Morgan Sindall as the Bournemouth Development Company (BDC), and its plans to build on many car parks across the town.

"If you think about the politics, the council has a Tory leadership and a Tory controlled planning board," said the source, who wished to remain anonymous.

"A good part of a million was spent over a two to three year period on ideas for Durley Road – for the plans not get by the planning board seems absurd."

The source said bosses at BDC were "fuming" at the decision, as Morgan Sindall will shoulder the costs of the refused application.

"BDC has done some really good work but now there is a real lack of communication between the leadership and members, they are out of touch with reality," the source said.

They said that the company as "basically run by" council leader Councillor Beesley and cabinet member for economic growth Cllr Philip Broadhead, alongside council executive director Bill Cotton, who is chairman of the BDC board.

"The leadership is very exclusive, and now there are question marks over the future of BDC.

"The population of Bournemouth has risen by a few tens of thousands in the last few years, we need more parking spaces.

"The whole parking situation has got to be reviewed."

The Durley Road proposal was something of an odd-one-out in the BDC portfolio, as there was no plan outlined to replace public spaces, and company representatives told planners they had no obligation to make one as the site was designated for housing in the council's planning policy documents.

Responding to the refusal, a company spokesman said board chairman Cllr David Kelsey had "openly stated [he was] going against planning policy in choosing to refuse the application".

BDC has more than £210 million worth of development proposed, with sites including the Winter Gardens, Bath Road, Cotlands, Central, Richmond Hill, Town Hall Annex, Glen Fern and West Hill car parks.

The council says all will see like-for-like replacement of public parking spaces, however critics have noted that BDC schemes seldom assign many spaces for the new flats constructed.

The Durley Road proposal had 41 spaces for 33 flats, of which 30 were two-bed.

BDC's completed Berry Court development has 113 flats, of which 77 are at least two-bed, but only provides 62 spaces for residents.