RESIDENTS on one of Poole’s major roads are making a last-ditch challenge to plans to take away their parking.

Poole Council intends to remove most of the parking in the top half of North Road after bus and coach operators said their services were being held up on the route.

Residents at the foot of the road saw off a parking ban but those further up the hill were unsuccessful.

Tracy Pallatt of Sea View Residents’ Association intends to present a petition – which currently has more than 130 signatures – ahead of a full meeting of Poole council on Tuesday, February 26.

“They have not consulted the road properly, particularly at the top of the road where practically all the parking is being removed,” she said, She said residents’ main concern was that removing parking would increase vehicle speeds on the hill, which were already too fast.

“We’ve had our front wall knocked down. Our neighbours have had their front wall knocked down.

“I’ve had a cyclist end up on my car roof when I was sitting in my car,” she said.

Their concerns are being backed by Parkstone councillors.

Cllr Sally Carpenter said: “Their concern is if we take away the parking, it’s going to speed up the road and you’re going to have more speeding traffic down there.

“I feel we’ve pushed this through too quickly without thinking and consulting with the residents.”

Fellow ward councillor Tony Woodcock said: “It’s going to increase the speed of traffic tremendously if they take away all the parking down there.”

The council has been improving a public open space on North Road which it took over from Bournemouth and Poole College and renamed College Gardens.

But the new measures would mean taking away parking nearby.

Cllr Woodcock said: “We’ve just spent money and taken five years to get the college to rent it to us. Then they say there’s no parking in front of it.”

Poole’s cabinet member for transport, Cllr Xena Dion, said in a reply to Tracy Pallatt: ‘In North Road, which is a key transport link between Bournemouth and Poole, there is a need to make improvements as part of a long-term strategy (upheld and desired at national level) to improve the attractiveness, reliability and safety of sustainable transport’.

She said the plans would red-uce carbon emissions, avoid congestion in the long term and improve health by encouraging cycling and walking.

“I am sorry that some of the residents in the road are not happy with the changes. This does not detract from the fact that the improvements are needed,” she said.