RESIDENTS of Southbourne have been joined by their MP in a final plea for a development on a car park to be stopped.
The plans to build four blocks of apartments on Southbourne Crossroads car park were approved in March on appeal by the planning inspectorate after they were refused by BCP Council’s planning committee.
The approval came despite hundreds of objections to the scheme, a petition signed by more than 1,500 people, and criticism from the MP, residents and councillors.
Tobias Ellwood, MP for Bournemouth East, has set up a parliamentary petition to call for a review of the process that saw the plans approved, which has been signed by more than 1,000 people.
He will present the petition to parliament in October.
Mr Ellwood said there was ‘clear anger’ amongst the community that the plans had been approved.
To challenge the plans, the MP is working with residents to formulate a strategy around their right to light, under the Prescription Act of 1832.
The group are also planning to propose to turn the car park into an e-car park, with half of the spaces for electric vehicles, to ensure the retention of the car park into the future.
The MP said the strategy for parking needed to be reviewed across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
“Staycations are on the rise, people are choosing to holiday here in the UK, Bournemouth is one of the premier spots,” he said.
“We need to attract people. In recognising that, three quarters of the people come to Bournemouth by car.
“Building on car parks is simply wrong for a tourism town. Building flats on car parks which don’t even have the car parking facilities for the flats themselves is completely mad.”
The petition has two stated aims – to review the loss of the car park and to support greater provision of off-street parking in Southbourne.
“You can see a local economic plan, this is where you need car parking spaces, it all fits in together. It is short sighted for the council simply to want to gain the business rates or gain the one-off benefits of selling the land itself,” Mr Ellwood said.
“I do hope the council wakes up, updates its wider car parking strategy for Bournemouth and leans in and supports the local voices, to stand up to their calls to save the car park as illustrated by the planning committee refusing this application twice.”
Southbourne resident Liz Bates said the petition was the last hope for residents to stop the development.
“We’ve given ourselves the date of October 20, to get as many signatures as possible,” Liz said.
“It’s a minimum of 1,000, but obviously if we go to parliament with 5,000 or 10,000 it holds more weight so we just want to get as many signatures as possible.
“What we’re hoping is that they’re going to review the whole process. So, a third party will look at how the council has dealt with it, how everything has been dealt with from the beginning.
“As it stands, the only thing left to do now is for the council to physically sign the land deal. That’s meant to be happening at the beginning of November.
“We want to try and set a precedent for making sure the democratic process is followed.”
Liz said the car park, which was deemed as surplus to requirements by Bournemouth Borough Council in 2017, has seen a huge increase in its use in the past few years.
Mr Ellwood will take the petition to minister Michael Gove and parliament and a copy will be sent to the planning inspectorate and the developer.
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