a day ago
Council wants to charge locals £70 to park outside their own homes
Residents will have to pay £70 to park outside their own homes, according to council plans.
Parking meters could be installed along roads within one kilometre (0.6 miles) of the seafront, with residents offered parking permits for £70, according to plans from Lib Dem-led Bournemouth, Christchurch and Pool (BCP) council.
Residents have accused the council of hypocrisy after it sold two 'key' seafront car parks, with the scheme labelled 'another attack' on motorists by the council, which has declared a climate emergency.
The local authority has previously been accused of causing traffic mayhem with prolonged roadworks to lay almost 50 miles of new cycle lanes in the area in an attempt to make travel more sustainable.
Plans for new parking meters come after a spate of 'Wild West' parking incidents as tourists left their cars on pavements, grass verges and even roundabouts.
Officials claim the extra revenue from the parking charges will help pay for more tow-trucks to take away illegally parked cars.
Motorists currently have to pay to park on most streets in the centre of Bournemouth but the large residential areas in Canford Cliffs, Branksome Chine and Westcliff, as well as Boscombe and Southbourne, are free.
Peter Schroeder, the chairman of the Branksome Park Residents Association, called the scheme 'stupid'.
He said: 'This proposal comes from the same council that is selling off key car parks. It is hypocrisy. We say no to residents paying to park their own cars on their own streets.
'We already have some of the highest council tax charges in the area. Charging residents and their guests and tradespeople doing work in houses and flats is a stupid idea.
'The council should give much stiffer penalties to those who do illegally park. £50 is probably nothing to them. If it was £1,000 they would think twice.'
Shaun White, a resident, said on social media: 'How is charging for parking spaces which are currently free going to prevent people from parking illegally on grass verges and double yellows?'
'Revenue for additional parking enforcement'
Last weekend, as thousands of tourists visited Bournemouth, more than 1,000 cars were ticketed for being illegally parked and ten were towed away.
Councillor Richard Herrett, the portfolio holder for destination, leisure and commercial operations at BCP Council, said: 'We welcome more than 10 million visitors annually to our seafront.
'We know at busy times we have a significant issue with illegal or inconsiderate parking. This significantly impacts road safety and can affect the quality of life for local residents.
'These proposals to extend seafront paid-for parking could generate revenue for additional parking enforcement and give us the ability to better enforce illegal parking across a wider area including increasing the number of vehicles which could be towed away in the worst parking instances.'
The proposal will now go out for public consultation before a final decision is made.
