Furious seaside town locals win fight against £70 charge to park outside homes

A council has scrapped plans that would have seen residents charged £70 to park outside their own homes. The draft proposal, put forward by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council, was in response to issues involving "wild west" parking by some tourists but the proposition angered many local residents.

The Lib Dem-led local authority was looking to install parking meters along roads within 0.6 miles of the seafront with residents offered permits for £70. It wanted to use money generated from the new meters to pay for more tow trucks to remove illegally parked cars. Busy summer days have seen many visitors who have struggled to park leave their vehicles in places including double yellow lines, grass verges and even roundabouts, reports say.

Announcing the plans had been stopped, Councillor Millie Earl, leader of the BCP, said: "We have listened and I want to give some assurance that we will not be supporting these draft proposals as set out in the survey.

"They are too big and cover too many roads and we understand that paid-for parking through residents' permits is not a solution people want.

"Without our backing the draft proposals simply won't be implemented."

She described the £35 maximum parking fines that councils outside of London can issue as "ridiculous", adding she has written to ministers and MPs to address this.

Cllr Earl said: "We need fines for inconsiderate, and dangerous parking to act as a proper deterrent and to raise the cash to invest in preventing illegal parking in the first place. But we've been ignored.

"We really want a simple solution to the parking chaos - and that is to properly fine and deter those who think it's okay to block pavements and driveways, and park on roundabouts and verges.

"But central government must change the rules."

Mark Davison, from campaign group BCP & Dorset Motorists, told The Telegraph that the council had "admitted defeat and run up the white flag".

"They realise the tsunami of public opinion was furious about this," he added.

Bournemouth Mayor George Farquhar, who was against the plans, told the newspaper he was "very pleased" the council had U-turned.