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Minutes of a ‘Zoom’ Meeting of the Committee held at the Invitation of

Paul at 7.00pm on Monday 22nd February 2021

Present: Ken Mantock (Chairman), Jean Bird (Vice Chairman), Jean-Daniel Kursner, John

Soane (Built Environment Officer and Paul Newsome (Minutes Secretary,

Apologies: John Barker (President), Elaine Cooper, Sally McGrath (Membership Secretary) Hilda Brownlow and Phil Stanley-Watts.

  1. Minutes. The minutes for the meeting held on 25th January were agreed.

2. Matters Arising from the Minutes:

  • Barnes Bench. The Council was unable to accept an order for a bench until July due to the Covid restrictions but Peter would arrange for payment at the necessary time. Ken and Beryl would liaise with the Council re its location in Queens Park.

  1. Built Environment.

  • Viking Court, 47 Southbourne Overcliff Drive. J-D had written to the Chair of the BCP Planning Committee, no reply to date – Ken would chase.

  • Friends of Riverside:

  1. BCP Council had sold land to the rear of the Royal Bournemouth Hospital for Hospital and Technology Park use.

  2. Plans for the A338 near the Hospital have been included in the Western Gateway Strategic Transport Plan and a meeting would take place on 17th March to which local groups would hope to muster.

  • BCP Climate Change Action Plan. The Society’s comments have been submitted by Ken.

  • Boscombe Area Town Development. Waiting for news.

  • Transforming Lansdowne. Work starts very soon. Ken, Jean and Elaine took part in a zoom call with Chris Sheppard of BCP Council and his designer colleague concerning the proposed artwork installation at the Old Fire Station. They liked the proposal and welcomed its creation and had asked JS to formally review the planning application in the next monthly digest.

  • Beales and Debenhams. John S has commented on the proposed changes – progress report was awaited awaited. Ken had featured the inevitable change of use of town centre shops and commercial premises in the most recent newsletter.

  • High Street Strategy. A BCP Cabinet meeting on 10th February agreed its High Street Strategy and it had been mentioned by Chris Sheppard in the meeting re Transforming Lansdowne. Ken had sent him the Historic England and High Street Heritage Action Zone information.

  • Local Plan Study Group Survey. The Cabinet on 10th February established a working group with two councillors from each borough so we would contact them to feed in ideas as part of the consultation processes.

  • Lucerne Arch. Work on removing the Arch is now underway. Need to keep an eye on the relocation to a prominent site of the Lucerne Watch.

  • RBS, Old Christchurch Road. Plans for change of use of the listed building from bank to gaming arcade have been featured in The Echo so JS will check them and include in forthcoming monthly digest.

  1. Heritage and Conservation.

  • Throop Mill. Still no news or replies to our enquiries. To be raised at meeting with Carline Peach.

  • Victorian Tram Shelter, Iddesleigh Road. No news.

  • Blue Plaque for Margo Durrell. Ken is waiting for replies to his email to Mike Stead and Ray Hamilton. Jean noted that Eileen Barker was a friend of Margo so would be able to provide information.

  • Aviary in Lower Gardens. Peter is progressing the agreed donation in memory of Keith Barnes,

  • Echo Building. John is checking the revised plans

  • Wilderton House. Plans had been allowed on appeal for the replacement of this Victorian house in Wilderton Road, Poole, with a block of flats. Ken had emailed Alwyn with background to BCS commenting on generally just planning applications in the former Bournemouth Borough Council boundary of the new BCS Council and the unlikely success of a judicial review or suchlike.

  • Civic Design Awards. It was agreed in principal that the Society would sponsor biennial awards (of say a total of £1,000 per 2 years toward plaques or trophies) for the best new build, conversion/re-use, restoration, heritage and open space schemes in the Borough during the period under consideration. Ken would liaise with BCP Council to take the idea forward.

  1. Planning. See John Soane’s written reports for January:

  • 23-31 Richmond Hill. The plan to create a further 20 residential units in the former office buildings were welcomed.

  • 303-305 Wimborne Road (Corner of Alma Road). The plan to build a four storey block of residential units for students on the site of the old Continental Cinema respected the townscape policies of BCP Council and should be allowed.

  • 431 Charminster Road. This application to build a short terrace of two semi-detached houses on a vacant site failed to comply with the townscape policy and should be refused

  • 40 Evelyn Road. This proposal to build a three-storey block of six flats on the site of a small artisan property was unsuitable for the site and should be refused.

  • 64 Castle Lane West. An application to create two linked blocks of six flats on the site of a pre-war bungalow with a double site. The plan was incompatible with the area, failed to meet the townscape policies and should be refused

  • 64 Irving Road. The plan to build two blocks of semi-detached houses with larger footprints than other buildings in the area was not good enough and should be refused.

  • 97-101 Seabourne Road. A plan to build a three-storey block of four flats on a vacant site currently occupied with advertising hoardings. The Society considers the building to be too large for the site and the application should be deferred.

  • 80 Holdenhurst Road. This application to convert a large ten-storey office building into 158 (mainly one bedroom) flats should be allowed.

  • 8 Meyrick Park Crescant. A plan to demolish the existing structure and replace with a new villa and two smaller villas replicating the original appearance. Because the plan fully complies with the townscape policy it should be allowed.

  • 15 Wootton Gardens. The plan to construct an extra three stories on an existing three storey block of flats. The1 Society considers this excessive build is an outrageous degradation of a historic part of Bournemouth and should be refused.

  • Debenhams. The plan to convert the department store into a hospitality centre. The Society considers that careful consideration of these proposals to ensure that it does not contribute to public nuisance is now vital.

  1. Planning Board Observations – No report received

  2. Communications Timetable. The spring newsletter had been written by Ken, typset and produced by the printers and Sally was sending the newsletters out in the post along with annual membership renewal forms.

  1. Civic Voice. Comments on the National Model Design Code and the NPPF had

been submitted by Civic Voice and they continued to lobby against the worst impacts of potential changes to the planning laws.

  1. Membership Officer’s Report. No report

  2. Webmaster’s Report. All good and up to date, all enquiries being followed up.

11. Treasurer’s Report:

  • Current Account. £35,790.84 (no change from September)

  1. Caroline Peach Meeting. No date yet, Ken would email Caroline and copy in Jean.

13 Any Other Business.

  • Annual General Meeting. It was agreed that this years AGM would be postponed due to Covid but like last year the accounts would be distributed by post to all members in the next newsletter.

Next Meetings

Mondays 22nd March and 26th April via ‘Zoom’ and starting at 7.00pm – Paul to be responsible for arrangements.

Ken Mantock

22nd March 2021 Chairman

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