Bournemouth park-and-ride plan 'very much alive' (From Bournemouth Echo)

Bournemouth park-and-ride plan 'very much alive'

9:00am Sunday 10th June 2012 in Bournemouth By Melanie Vass

PROPOSALS to build a park and ride scheme in Bournemouth have been resubmitted, with developers aiming to start work when the economy picks up.

Troika Developments have had to reapply for planning permission for a park and ride scheme at Riverside Avenue, Littledown, because three years have passed since permission was won on appeal.

Because of the decline in the economy, building work has not yet started on this scheme, or on the associated plans to build almost 25,000sqm of office accommodation on the site.

But Nigel Walters, MD of Troika, pictured above, said the plans were still very much alive. “We have already renewed the planning permission for the offices and we now need to renew the permission for the park and ride,” he said.

“This is the most prestigious employment site left in Poole and Bournemouth and as things get better it will be the first thing that people want to use. It’s a very prominent piece of land.

“At some stage or other we would hope to do a commercial scheme or a mixed commercial and medical scheme on the site. The park and ride would only be built alongside that.

“This land has been zoned for some years as a major employment site and we want to keep that alive for when things improve.”

The application is the subject of public consultation until the end of the month, when officers will make a decision on whether or not to renew permission.