After 275 objections, only East Overcliff Drive and Rolls Drive get EV-only bays from today. Chargers still go in on 27 other streets, and four sites are dropped.
BCP Council has dropped plans for electric-car-only parking bays on 27 residential streets after residents objected. The chargers will still go in, but any car will be able to park beside them.
Only two places get bays reserved for charging cars: East Overcliff Drive in Bournemouth and Rolls Drive in Southbourne. The traffic order for those two came into force today, 2 November, according to the council’s notice of making.
Four more sites will get nothing at all.
What was decided
The council consulted on EV-only bays at 33 locations between 17 July and 7 August. The officer decision record, signed off in October, splits them three ways:
- 2 locations get chargers and EV-only bays: East Overcliff Drive and Rolls Drive
- 27 locations get chargers without reserved bays, so “non EVs will be able to park as they currently can”
- 4 locations get neither: Henville Road, Park Lake Road, St Anthony’s Road and St Michael’s Road
The record says the two exceptions are “destination locations”, where holidaymakers or visitors “may struggle to find the owners of a vehicle obstructing a charger”.
For the other streets, it says objections were mainly about parking pressure, and that “demand for EV charger access is currently negligible”. It adds that a fresh traffic order could follow “if / when in time EV ownership increases”.
275 objections, most of them in Christchurch
We added up the responses in the record’s appendix, location by location. There were 285 responses, and 275 were objections.
More than four in ten came from one Christchurch street. Russell Drive, where 10 bays were proposed at two spots, drew 113 objections. Viscount Walk in Bearwood drew 41, the most of any Bournemouth street. Harcourt Road in Boscombe drew 16.
Eleven locations drew no objection at all. Nine of them had no response of any kind.
The Bournemouth streets
Sixteen of the 33 locations are in Bournemouth postcodes. This is what the record says for each.
| Street | Ward | Bays proposed | Responses | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Overcliff Drive, BH1, opposite Hinton Wood | Bournemouth Central | 6 | 2 in support, with conditions | Chargers and EV-only bays |
| Rolls Drive, BH6, opposite 14-16 | East Southbourne and Tuckton | 6 | 1 objection, 1 comment | Chargers and EV-only bays |
| Viscount Walk, BH11, opposite 96-106 | Bearwood and Merley | 4 | 41 objections | Chargers, no reserved bays |
| Harcourt Road, BH5, opposite Harcourt Hall | Boscombe East and Pokesdown | 4 | 16 objections | Chargers moved to the Harcourt Hall side, no reserved bays |
| Capstone Road, BH8, outside 203-207 | Queen’s Park | 4 | 5 objections | Chargers, no reserved bays |
| Newstead Road, BH6, outside 41 | East Southbourne and Tuckton | 4 | 5 objections | Chargers, no reserved bays |
| Pine Avenue, BH6, opposite 5 | West Southbourne | 4 | 2 objections | Chargers, no reserved bays, kept 10m from the junction |
| Wharncliffe Road, BH5, outside 14 | Boscombe West | 4 | 1 support, 2 objections | Chargers, no reserved bays |
| Borthwick Road, BH1, opposite 3-32 Walpole Road | Boscombe West | 6 | 1 objection | Chargers, no reserved bays |
| Christchurch Road, BH7, outside 1188 Willow Court | Littledown and Iford | 4 | 1 objection | Chargers, no reserved bays |
| Canford Avenue, BH11, outside 1 Ivamy Place | Wallisdown and Winton West | 4 | None | Chargers, no reserved bays |
| Holloway Avenue, BH11, outside 16-18 | Kinson | 6 | None | Chargers, no reserved bays |
| Slades Farm Road, BH10, outside 27 | Wallisdown and Winton West | 4 | None | Chargers, no reserved bays |
| St Anthony’s Road, BH2, outside 15-17 | Bournemouth Central | 6 | 3 objections | Dropped |
| Henville Road, BH8, outside 55 Malmesbury Park Road | Queen’s Park | 4 | None | Dropped |
| St Michael’s Road, BH2, outside Tollard Court | Westbourne and West Cliff | 6 | None | Dropped |
The record gives two reasons for the dropped sites. Its summary says the local power supply was not good enough at all four. The appendix says the contractor found Henville Road and St Michael’s Road “no longer viable”. At St Anthony’s Road, which is in a conservation area, the chargers were dropped “after discussion with Heritage team”.
Who is paying, and who runs them
BCP accepted £1.447 million from the government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure fund in January 2024, the record says. The aim is low-powered chargers for people who have no driveway.
Connected Kerb won a 15-year contract to install and run the chargers, after a joint tender with Dorset Council. The traffic order itself cost about £3,000, paid from the same grant.
The record does not give an installation date for any street.
What it means for you
- If you live on one of the 27 streets: you keep the parking you have now. A charger will appear, but no bay will be marked for electric cars only, and parking beside it stays under the same rules as now.
- On East Overcliff Drive and Rolls Drive: from today, the bays by the chargers are for electric vehicles charging. Rolls Drive already has a summer two-hour limit; check the signs once they go up.
- If you drive an electric car and have no driveway: a charger on a residential street may be blocked by a parked car. The council says it will collect data on use before deciding on any more bays.
- Challenging the order: the notice says anyone questioning its legal validity can apply to the High Court within six weeks of 21 October.
- For other changes to where you can park, see our page on parking in Bournemouth.
Sources: BCP Council, Electric Vehicle Charging Bays LEVI Phase 1 (reference P137), with the sealed order, notice of making and officer decision record published there.
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