THE weekend’s sunny weather brought thousands of people to Bournemouth to enjoy the beach.

But there was the usual hot weather parking chaos across the conurbation as car parks quickly filled up and drivers left their cars in any space they could find.

BCP Council’s enforcement officers issued a total of 764 tickets to drivers over the weekend, which at £35 a ticket will land the council more than £26,700.

Bournemouth resident Dean Hawthorne walked down to the beach at Boscombe pier along Boscombe Overcliff Drive on Saturday.

Bournemouth Echo: Bad parking in Boscombe across the weekend.

He pictured cars parked illegally on pavements and double yellow lines along the clifftop, resulting in families being forced to walk in the road due to the blocked walkways.

“As I walked down to the pier, there were a couple of people out there managing it, saying 'you can’t go any further', turning people away,” Dean said.

“But when you get up towards Southbourne, people unload their cars and they’ve got kids and buggies, you can’t get past the cars that are blocking the pavement, so you’ve got to go in the road.

“It’s a family place, and people are trying to take their kids down to the beach.

“If someone’s driving along that road just concentrating on trying to find a space and someone walks out into the road because they can’t get past because someone’s parked across the pavement.

“It’s just not very considerate is it.”

Bournemouth Echo: Bad parking in Boscombe across the weekend.

He said although the council gave out ‘absolutely loads’ of tickets, they could have given more.

Dean added that in some areas he didn’t see any cars, including those on the Boscombe clifftop, getting tickets.

“I only went for a woodland walk down to Boscombe pier, so I have no idea all the way down to Hengistbury Head,” he said.

“Bournemouth is a tourist place. But if you’re just going to come down and dump your car, it’s just not cricket.”

Bournemouth Echo: Bad parking in Boscombe across the weekend.

Councillor Mike Cox, portfolio holder for finance said: “It’s inevitable when we get really hot weekends like this that people will journey down to visit our beautiful seafront and we welcome them, but we were incredibly frustrated to see some drivers parking inconsiderately at the expense of residents and businesses.

“At busy times, we ensure more officers are on duty across the seafront. Extra traffic management staff were allocated this weekend to the busiest areas, in addition to more than 20 parking Civil Enforcement Officers on duty on both days.”