Travellers - Littledown Centre Update

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!

Travellers - Littledown Centre

I’m afraid we have had another incursion by travellers, this time in the Littledown Centre car park, where they arrived on Friday night.  We have received this update from our parks team this morning:

I am sorry to say that on Friday 18^th June at around 2200 hours we had 10 caravans arrive in the car park at the Littledown leisure centre

Our legal department will push for a court hearing first thing Monday morning

Having spoken to the travellers it is apparent they are going to stay as long as possible

Jane and I are liaising with council officers and have ensured that the normal precautions have been taken over further incursions both at the Littledown Centre and in King’s Park.  We will of course keep you up to date.

Troika Planning Application - Riverside Avenue

You may recall that 3 years ago, despite Jane and I fighting this proposed development on land behind the hospital, it was approved at Appeal by the Inspectorate at Bristol.  Now, 3 years on, an application has been submitted to extend the time limit for the implementation of the planning permission.  Although the scale of the development was reduced by the Inspector at Appeal, it remains a substantial development of over 24,600 square metres of office space plus parking on site.

Our concern is particularly the scale of the development and the negative impact on our local road infrastructure in an already heavily burdened traffic area.  Additionally it will impact on the many elderly residents who reside at the Retired Nurses Home in Riverside Avenue whose outlook will change from  green space to a four storey office building.  If you are minded to object to this application to extend their planning permission time, please do put your objections in writing to Planning at the Town Hall, Bourne Avenue - for the attention of Mr Barry Carse, Planning Officer. 

If you require one of our pro-forma letters please do get in touch with me.  I am 'calling in' the application meaning it cannot be determined by a planning officer but must instead go before the Planning Board - this gives us and residents the opportunity to make a deputation to the Board.

I will let you know when this will take place, probably July or August.  Closing date for objection letters to be in is the 18th June.

Fancy a beach hut?

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.