RESIDENTS groups and beach-users have reacted with fury after council chiefs agreed to introduce controversial pay and display parking charges in Poole - despite objections from thousands of residents.

The ruling, made by Borough of Poole’s (BOP) cabinet after a highly-charged civic centre meeting, has been described by protestors as “undemocratic” and a “cash cow.”

Yesterday, a number of beach hut owners in Poole said they’d be forced to hand back their keys, saying the additional costs of on-street parking coupled with recent beach hut rent rises, had priced them out.

Barry Swaffield, commodore of Poole’s North Haven Yacht Club, told the Echo: “This ruling will absolutely devastate our club. When people hear yacht club, they think we are all extremely wealthy with 40ft yachts, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of our members are ordinary working people. We even have members learning to sail in their 70s.

“We are a grass roots, amateur club and at the moment our members rely on free on-street parking in and around Banks Road. If our members cannot get here without paying, we will inevitably lose them to other clubs.”

Meanwhile, Bob Lister, of the Poole Beach Hut Association, said the agreed pay and display charges for streets near beaches means beach-users are now facing paying up to £15 a day.

He added: “I’ve already had several beach hut owners contact me this morning to say they may have to hand their huts back. With the recent raise in beach huts rents, these parking charges make covering the costs of renting a hut financially unattainable for many people.”

The revised scheme agreed by councillors did include some concessions - the number of streets near to beaches set for inclusion had been reduced, and these charges will only be extended during the peak season.

Acknowledging this, Bob Reid, of the Branksome Park and Canford Cliffs Residents’ Association, said: “It was good to see that the council had listened to the concerns of local residents and reduced the extent of the scheme significantly.”

But for beach-users such as North Haven Yacht Club members, the move to charge for on-street parking on the peninsular has been criticised.

Mr Swaffield said: “It is a fallacy that this is being done to ease congestion, the decision taken by councillors, elected to represent us, have paid no notice to the overwhelming feelings of residents -their own public consultation showed that. If this is democracy in action then I will eat my hat.”

Earlier this year, during a public consultation on introducing parking fees in some Poole parks and on roads near beaches, residents objected in their thousands.

Then, in June, the council’s cabinet voted not to progress with the proposals as they were. Instead, members ruled to consider the concerns raised during the consultation at a later date.

The revised proposals agreed include parking charges at Hamworthy Park, Lake Pier, Newfoundland Drive, Ham Common and Whitecliff Park. On-street parking, at £1.50 an hour, will be charged at Canford Cliffs Chine, Branksome Chine and the Sandbanks peninsula. The proposed tariff for the parks is free parking for up to 30 minutes, £1 for up to two hours and £2 for up to 10 hours, with the option of an annual permit.

The charges will likely come into force from March 2017. Tuesday’s decision could be called-in, at which point BOP’s overview and scrutiny committee would make recommendations back to cabinet. Once cabinet has approved the draft minutes from Tuesday’s meeting, members will have three working days to initiate a call-in.