Nick King's blog

Today saw the Standard's Board hearing in to a complaint against Cllr Stephen Macloughlin.  The whole business has been pretty unedifying, but, as the Daily Echo reports here, the result leaves no one satisfied.  In my view no one comes out of this process with any credit.  It's a sad day for the Council.

Thanks so much for the feedback you’ve sent on the proposed extension of parking restrictions to Saturdays.

Jane and I spoke at some length over the weekend to the Cabinet member for transport, Michael Filer. Having given your feedback he has agreed to instruct officers NOT to introduce restrictions until there has been a proper consultation with ward councillors and residents. A consultation that we will lead on.

Having sent the email, Lawrence also called on a number of people in the affected roads to ask their opinion too. We gathered 80 responses which split 72 : 8 in favour of no extension of the restrictions. The 8 people who were in favour were grouped together where the match day parking is at its worst and I’ll therefore be talking to the police and the council today to see what we can do to help those residents in the short term while we sort out a better response.

Naturally enough, your responses included a number of other useful suggestions and enquiries. Forgive me for not responding to everyone individually but answering them as best I can here.

Area of Restriction Extension

The proposal for this was that the restrictions should be extended in the roads of Littledown Avenue and the upper end of Harewood Avenue and ‘New Littledown’ – the roads leading off Harewood Crescent. It would not have extended down Harewood Avenue beyond Avonbourne and Portchester schools. Sorry, I should have made this clear in the first email.

Parking Permits

Jane has led on this for us and has obtained a pilot scheme in one of our local roads with a particular problem. The officers have had to be brought kicking and screaming to the table to do it, but the consultation has begun and we have committed £1,000 from our ward fund to ensure the pilot goes ahead. The change of leadership in the council has frankly not helped us, as the Cabinet member in charge has changed, but Jane’s tenacity should still pay off. Beyond that we see no reason why a wider consultation for everyone should not be brought forward and we’re still fighting for this.

King’s Park developments, Holdenhurst Road and the proposed Slip Road.

Proposals for the construction of the on slip at King’s Park have so far escaped the proposed cuts once again. The outline planning application for an ice rink in King’s Park has just been published. We’ll be letting you have more details of this over the next couple of weeks and will be pressing for any approval for construction to be subject to the construction of the on slip. In the meantime, the works on Holdenhurst Road are nearly completed and should help in the short term as the traffic lights introduced at the Fire Station junction and at the junction of Ashley Road will be intelligently linked to allow extended flow of traffic from the busiest direction.

Thank you again for helping us with your feedback. The ability to respond with so much support so quickly has ensure we have the outcome we should have had all along – a respite while we have a chance to contact everyone and work for a solution that’s suitable to everyone or at least as many people as possible.

You may know that for some time the Police have wanted to stop putting out bollards to prohibit parking on AFC Bournemouth match days. Jane and I have been successful in keeping the arrangement going, however I am afraid they have now decided definitely to stop providing the service. This is partially as a result of changes in the law about the police managing traffic, but more importantly because their budget pressures mean they can’t afford the manpower. (You may reasonably ask why AFC Bournemouth can’t pick up the tab, I agree, and am pursing this issue through the Police Authority.)


The police and council officers met earlier this year without Jane or my knowledge and agreed that the best course of action was to extend the current yellow line parking restrictions from weekdays only to Saturdays as well, every Saturday - regardless of whether there is a match on at AFC Bournemouth.

We were informed at the end of last week and our initial reaction to this is that it is completely unacceptable. To further prohibit your ability to park on the street at a weekend would we believe be very unpopular. That is certainly the reaction from the local people I have spoken to so far.

The down side of course is that there will be no restriction to on street parking on match days, which will cause some problems. The police and council are adamant that extension of the yellow lines is the only solution. I don’t believe this can be the case and am pursuing other ideas.

In the meantime, you will be receiving a letter from the council in the next day or so informing you that the restrictions will be coming in to place from August 9th.

Jane and I would very much appreciate it if you could let us know what you think. Are we right in assuming that the inconvenience of match day parking will be less than the inconvenience of parking restrictions applying every Saturday?



We intend to survey as widely as we can in the area about the issue. If it’s possible for you to tell your friends and neighbours who don’t receive our email updates and ask them to let us know too that would be brilliant. I am hoping that with a sufficiently wide response we can ensure that no changes are brought in before a proper consultation with local residents and councillors about ALL the possible options is carried out

The council obtained a court order this morning to reposes the car park at the Littledown Centre and to move the travellers there on. They will be evicted by bailiffs by Monday and the site will be cleared by the end of Monday afternoon.

Galling as always that we have to pay for the clear up! Let’s hope the new Government gets some legislation in place to make the process easier, quicker and to give us powers to charge those causing the problem soon.

Thanks as always to Jane for chasing this through. She has become our traveller expert!

From today (Monday 7 June) all Bournemouth residents are being given the opportunity to lease one of the new Undercliff Drive beach huts.

Charmaine Andrews, Seafront Development Assistant for Bournemouth Borough Council, said: “Customers currently on the beach hut waiting lists were given the first opportunity to lease a new hut site, but a limited number of sites are now available to anyone who lives in Bournemouth. All sites will be leased on a first come, first served basis so I would urge people to be quick in contacting us if they would like one of the new sites as we expect there to be a great demand.”

Residents interested in leasing a beach hut site should call the Seafront office on 01202 451781. The cost of leasing a site within this development from the Council is currently £750 per year, plus beach hut rates.

The huts, due to be fully installed on Undercliff Drive by the end of the summer are traditional-style and painted in contemporary shades from sandy yellows, through to greens, blues, pinks and purples.

Iain Dale is telling this story about a family friend being asked the question "who is the Prime Minister?" To check for dementia upon entering hospital after a stroke.

When Mum had her fall my first question upon reaching her was "Who is the Prime Minister?" to similarly check whether she had suffered a stroke. Her answer was "Gordon Brown".

My follow up question being "Do we like him?".

Her answer: "No, we most certainly do not."

I asked the questions and she answered them every day up until Monday.

Made me smile.

I'm sorry to say that My Mum passed away early this morning in Salisbury District Hospital from pneumonia. She'd been there for some weeks after having had a fall in early November and had been recovering well until yesterday. Her end was peaceful and pain free, yet that knowledge makes our loss no less devastating.

This morning, as with every Remembrance Sunday since I was elected, I attended the Service of Remembrance in the Lower Gardens.

Each year it becomes more moving as the old soldiers become older yet also become more determined to pay their respects. As their places are replaced by younger men returned from more recent conflicts. And as the crowds grow ever larger around the cenotaph.

This year though there was a difference. A demonstration by members of UKIP holding political placards during at the end of the Service.

I understand they also layed a wreath under their party colours with a similarly political note attached.

That's not jsut direspectful, it's appalling and despicable and is a mark of the people who took part. They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Remembrance Service is not, and must never be, about politics. It's far too important for that.

For those of you who did not see this in the Echo. We have now heard from Network Rail that they have definite dates for the long awaited closure of Ashley Road, Boscombe, while the bridge over the railway it replaced. We have asked that, if at all possible, the closure is delayed for buses and the reopening for buses only is brought forward, even if it means a single lane ‘buses only' section and only for a week or so at either end. They have said that they will try to achieve this, but can make no promises.

Ashley Road will be completely closed at the railway bridge from Monday 19 October until Saturday 19 December.

There will be full possessions of the rail line (so no trains operating) from 01.00 on Saturday 14 November to 04.00 on Monday 16 November, and also from 01.00 on Sunday 22 November to 04.00 on Monday 23 November when the rubble from the present bridge is removed. This will, I understand, be done by road, so there will be large numbers of heavy lorries present on those weekends. All design and supervision works for the bridge replacement will be done by Network Rail or their contractors.
There will, inevitably, be a considerable amount of disruption to traffic flows during this period, but please be assured that we will do all we can to minimise the effects on local residents and businesses.

I can hear you groan now!

An update: we’re still chasing the issue of residents parking permits.

In the meantime I have been able to speak to Parking and make a temporary arrangement with them. Margaret Leslie is the parking manager, she has agreed that she residents can email her when they know that they are not going to be able to park off road during the designated times and therefore their cars may be left on the lines. She will endeavour to ensure you don’t get a ticket. I must stress that this is not an arrangement that can be used frequesntly and it is for occasions when parking on the road is completely unavoidable.

If you have workmen working at your home you should arrange with them to get their own tradesman permit which will exempt them while working at your property. Again Margaret can arrange this.

This arrangements can not be used retrospectively, so if you get a ticket I’m afraid you will still have to pay it, sorry!

Margaret can be contacted at: Margaret.Leslie@bournemouth.gov.uk

We’ve had this message from the Council’s Tree Officer:

Close to the footway that runs through Littledown estate near to Hartsbourne Drive there is a veteran Oak. It is likely that this tree is in excess of 300 hundred years old. Veteran trees are an important and scarce resource and require sympathetic management.

We need to carry out some remedial works to this tree to reduce the potential for large decayed limbs to break out and strike the footway or neighbouring properties. This work will involve reducing the trees crown to lessen loading on the limbs. The tree is surrounded by young Sycamore and Horse chestnut trees these young trees are very vigorous and will 'swamp' the older Oak particularly following this remedial work. In order to prevent this we will be removing a number of these young trees to create a favourable habitat for the Oak to carry on for many more decades.

Porchester School are making a planning application for a new sports hall. It’s another of those occasions when opinion is split. We have had people contact us who are both in support of the application (largely parents and teachers) and those who are against (particularly residents of Petersfield Road who will back on to the site).

The application will come before the Planning Board on Monday 17th August at the Town Hall. The meeting starts at 5pm and the application is on in second place, which means it should be heard about 5.30 – 6pm (Although as those who attended the meeting for Southwick Road know only too well that’s a very approximate time).

I will be speaking for those residents who are against the proposal and Jane will be speaking on behalf of those who are in favour. If anyone would like to talk to us about it before the meeting then please either Jane or I know.

Jane and I and around 30 residents attended the Planning Board meeting last month to oppose the application. The vote was close, but I am pleased to say that the application was overturned. Thanks so much to everyone who came along and to all of you who wrote in with objections. We expect it to go to appeal relatively soon and will of course be supplying letters to object at that point too.

A quick update for you on some plans at Tescos on Castle Lane East.

Last autumn plans were put forward for the store to erect two wind turbines on their land. The proposal was turned down by the Council’s planning department.

Tesco have now appealed against the refusal of planning permission.

We’ve had correspondence from local people both opposed to and supporting the proposal, for that reason we haven’t circulated objection letters. The reasons people are supporting the application are as you might expect largely around the turbines providing a sustainable source of energy. Those opposing are concerned about the issues of noise disturbance locally.

The details of the application are:

Reference: APP/G1250/A/09/2105900/NWF

Comments or Objections should be sent to:

The planning Inspectorate
Room 3/19a
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol BS1 6PN

You should quote the above reference number.

As always, our advice is to make the letter as personal as possible, tell them how the application may effect you.

Because of the split opinions locally we won’t be sending out a pro forma letter for either side. If you would like any help with further information or in composing your letter then do please let either Jane or I know.

Many of you asked Jane and I to try and have the speed bumps in Harewood Avenue removed and replaced with a more back/car friendly speed control method and so we've been liaising with the highways department at the Council and also Dorset Police.

I'm afraid to say that it rather came to a standstill at a meeting with the police in April as the accident statistics demonstrated that actually accidents have reduced since the bumps were put down.

As the location of the bumps falls within the speed control zone (schools) of 20mph it was suggested by the police that if drivers were travelling at 20mph there would be no damage sustained to vehicles nor discomfort to drivers/passengers. It is unlikely the bumps will be removed as they seem to be working effectively but we will monitor their state of repair closely!

Please do let us know if you find any damage to the bumps.

The Council has been given ten tonnes of compost by one of its waste partners, to give away free as a thank you to the efforts of residents who are helping to make the green waste collection service such a success.

The compost is being made available on a first come first served basis at the Kings Park green waste collection point on Sunday 24 May from 9am to 1pm. Anyone can come along and collect two bags/containers of compost on showing their council tax bill as proof of residency. (Residents should provide their own containers).

We have received letters and emails from residents regarding an area of land identified as possibly suitable for the building of residential dwellings in order to fund enhanced recreation/play areas.  The list of land pockets is Borough wide and will be divided into low and high priority.  At this stage we don't yet know if the Sovereign Close land will be low priority.  If not we will of course be seeking a full consultation and will represent the views of residents if asked to do so. 

The consultation process has now concluded and work can now start (within the next couple of weeks) to add the yellow lines to Summerfields, Ovington Gardens, Ovington Avenue and Hursley Close - to prohibit waiting Mon - Fri 11am to 12pm and 2pm to 3pm.  We have knocked on every door in these roads to consult with residents and the lines are a result of this consultation.  It remains our hope to find a better solution for the ward and we are working hard to do so.

Apparently Gordon Brown has agreed to accept prisoners being released from Guantanamo Bay to help President Elect Obama out of a hole.

The thing is, these people will have no link what so ever with the UK.

Presumably they have been held on Cuba becuase they were considered a threat of some kind. They deserve a proper, just, trial and if found not-guilty should be released to where they came from or to make appropriate applications to countries considereing to take them.

So why are we agreeing to take them, apparently without precondition?

Now, some people might think that I'm a bit tight. (I prefer to think of myself as appropriately frugal). Anyway, I went shopping for a Christmas present today for one of my God Sons. We'd agreed not to see them until the New Year and I had, genuinely, not had time to find the present prior to Christmas.

I therefore spent a couple of hours at Castlepoint and the shopping centre on the old bus depot site opposite.

What was astounding was firstly how few people there were about, the car parks were busy but by no means full and the shops were equally busy but there were virtually no queues at the tills.

More surprising for me was the lack of stock on the shelves. Admittedly, we are at the end of a week in which there is little stock coming in to the stores, but even so there was a very limited choice of goods. This wasn't just the case in the electrical stores, but also in the food shops as well.

It's a poor augry for the coming year. Little money to spend, both by consumers and by retailers stocking their shelves will surely have a circular and knock on effect, one thing leading on to the other. It doesn't bode well and it proves how wrong the Government's policy of borrowing wildly to pay for tax cuts that have had little effect and to bail out the banks who continue to refuse to lend is.