WORK to replace a Bournemouth car park with new flats, a medical and community centre and retail kiosks will begin next year. 

BCP Council will close Hawkwood Road car park in Boscombe in 2025 as part of now agreed plans to redevelop the site. 

An exact date is not yet clear at this stage, but the car park will remain open for visitors and residents in the meantime. 

Councillors voted in favour of the new scheme, which includes 68 flats, last month.  

But with that, just 51 car parking spaces will be left – a loss of 377 parking spaces, as the area would be built over. 

Approval was given on the condition CCTV was added to the site and there was space for “non-standard” bicycles such as cargo bikes. 

The major development is part of the Boscombe Towns Fund – more than £21m of government investment secured to redevelop Boscombe. 

Martha Covell, programme manager Bournemouth Towns Fund, said the council has an “ambitious” vision for Boscombe to make it “connected, diverse, healthy and safe”.  

As reported, a number of residents had written in to the council to say it would cause “mayhem” if the car park spaces were to be lost to the development.  

They pointed out the car park “often looks full in the summer” and during events at the O2 theatre.