Car parks in the Lansdowne will be built on

Plans for Cotlands Road and York Road car parks are the latest to have been drawn-up by Bournemouth Development Company (BDC) – the council’s partnership with Morgan Sindall Investments.

On Wednesday, cabinet members unanimously backed a development plan for the two car parks which would see five new office and residential blocks built along with a new 420-space multi-storey car park.

BDC’s latest proposal is for the second largest of the town centre sites it has earmarked for development, behind only its £150 million plans for the Winter Gardens site.

Its development plan for the two car parks, outlines plans to build five blocks for office, residential and retail uses following a first phase which would see a new multi-storey car park build on the York Road site to replace other spaces lost through the scheme.

The approved plan says that the scheme would be “a significant vote of confidence” in the area as a place to live and work.

Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting, Cllr Philip Broadhead, cabinet member for economic growth said that the Cotlands Road was “arguably the most exciting” of all of BDC’s sites.

“I think it will go a long way to improving the setting of Lansdowne,” he said.

“One only needs to look at the level of investment going on in our CBD (central business district) – nine cranes in the sky – to see that private companies have given their backing to the area.

“This is very much driven by economic development and will ensure that we have got vertical rhythm in that part of the town.”

He added that the council had already had “significant interest” from private firms interested in the site.

Cotlands Road has already been earmarked in the council’s Town Centre Area Action Plan for a “significant proportion of employment space”.

Construction of the new development, starting with the new multi-storey car park, is expected to begin next year and will be followed in 2021 with the start of the work on the Cotlands Road car park.