CAR OWNERSHIP in central Bournemouth has rocketed by more than 15 per cent in five years.

Department for Transport figures show that registrations in the BH1 postcode, which covers East Cliff, Springbourne, Boscombe and the town centre went up from 6,642 in 2014 to 7,646 in spring 2019 meaning there were more than 1,000 extra vehicles on the road.

However, car-ownership there is dwarfed by that in the BH23 area. Christchurch, Sopley, Burton and Highcliffe have a hefty 31,778, registered cars, more than four times the number in central Bournemouth.

The postcode with the fewest cars registered is BH3 - Talbot Woods and Winton South where there are just under 3,000 registered motors. But even this relatively modest number represents an increase of seven per cent in just five years.

The Wimborne area has the second highest number of cars registered, at nearly 27,000.

Overall, registrations in the south west have gone up by nearly nine per cent - the highest percentage in England.

Department for Transport data shows that 2,954,541 were registered in the region in 2014.

In five years that number had risen to 3,212,914 - more than a quarter of a million more.

According to personal finance research site, NimbleFins, there are up to four times as many cars on some residents' streets in England compared with five years ago.

In all Milton Keynes postcode MK14 had the biggest increase in cars, growing by 97,603 cars between 2014 and 2019

And spare a thought for SN5, which covers West Swindon, Lydiard Millicent and Purton, which has 53,540 more cars now than five years ago, a rise of 62 per cent.

Only five postcode districts in the South West saw a decrease in cars from 2014 to 2019, with GL1 (Gloucester) having the biggest decrease at just over 50 per cent.

Car ownership has risen in every single Dorset postcode.

CEO of NimbleFins, Erin Yurday, said: "While we applaud the installation of electric car charging points, more needs to be done to offset the rising number of polluting cars if we're going to tackle carbon emissions."