BOROUGH OF POOLE
HAMWORTHY EAST AND WEST AND POOLE TOWN AREA COMMITTEE – WEDNESDAY 15 APRIL 2009
REPORT OF HEAD OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
on SELDOWN CAR PARK
1. Purpose and Policy Context
1.1 To consider the future operation of Seldown Car Park now that the occupation by Wilts and Dorset for the duration of the Bus Station refurbishment scheme is complete.
2 Decisions Required.
2.1 It is requested that this Area Committee give their view on the proposals to operate Seldown Car Park, as described in item 3.5 and shown on drawing. JC0411/02, to the Transportation Advisory Group
3 Background
3.1 Seldown Car Park was for many years leased to and operated by NCP. In June 2005 it was taken back into the control of Borough of Poole and has since been run as a Town Centre Car Park.
3.2 The car park was unusual for a Town Centre location in that it consisted of a gravel surface. It remained this way until it was tarmaced in December 2008 as a result of the following:-
a) Proposals for redeveloping this area as part of the Town Centre North Area Action Plan were considered as sufficiently distant in the future due to uncertainties around the current economic climate such that the cost of improvements could be justified here.
b) The gravel surface was becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain. Indeed the situation was reached during particularly wet weather towards the end of last year that consideration was being given to closing the car park as there were a large number of complaints and a number of claims were made.
c) Proposals for the refurbishment of the adjacent bus station were in considerable difficulty as a site was required for the buses displaced while the works were being undertaken. In this respect the adjacent site at Seldown offered the only practical solution, and then only if it could be surfaced.
d) The Poole and Hamworthy Area Committee of 3 December 2008 had rejected a scheme to re-align Seldown Road designed to overcome the problems associated with the University bus layover, resulting in £70,000 funding becoming available within the Government funded Transportation capital programme.
3.3 The subsequent operation of buses into the car park for the duration of the bus station refurbishment scheme has exceeded expectations in that it has gone particularly well, with no problems being experienced either by bus operators or indeed their passengers.
3.4 Now the bus station works are complete there exists the opportunity to consider a multi purpose use on this site in the longer term in order to address a number of outstanding transportation issues which currently exist within the Town Centre.
3.5 Proposals for the layout of this area are shown on the plan shown as Appendix A. The main features are:-
a) 87 general parking spaces provided, reduced from the original 150 spaces. While surface car parking at a location such as this in the Town Centre is undoubtedly much valued by drivers, other than at Christmas time there is generally sufficient capacity elsewhere in the other car parks in the viscinity so that this loss should not adversely affect visitors to the Town.
b) 5 extra wide disabled bays and 5 large minibus/transit size bays, providing flexibility in order to cater for this type of demand not found in other Town Centre car parks.
c) 8 daytime layover visiting coach spaces – provided some years ago as an alternative to the Stadium Lorry Park, encouraging coach drivers to bring their passengers to Poole.
d) 3 new bus stops, providing locations for:-
· National Express Coaches – the provision for inter city coaches at the bus station has long been a cause of concern, particularly due to the lack of drop off and pick up facilities by car and taxi which currently make up 63% of their passenger arrivals. Anecdotal evidence is that some passengers currently choose Bournemouth or even Ringwood as an alternative location to board a bus where adjacent car parking facilities are much better
· University Service Bus E – the University have indicated they would welcome the move here, which would resolve the current bus layover problem on Seldown Bridge.
· Local Bus Services – Verwood bus and Shaftesbury and District are two of the smaller operators who have indicated they would be interested in such a facility.
Additional stops provided in this way help to relieve the pressure on the currently overcrowded Bus Station.
4. The next steps
4.1 The decision on the future operation of this car park will be made by the Portfolio Holder at the meeting of the Transportation Advisory Group on 23 April 2009. The view of this Area Committee is sought, which will be presented to this Meeting.
Julian McLaughlin
Head of Transportation Services
Appendix A – Drawing. JC0411/02 layout plan (not available electronically)
Name and Telephone Number of Officer Contact
Steve Tite (01202 262020)
Background Papers - none
4 April 2009
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