A BRANKSOME resident said the council has “failed” them and claimed the Sandbanks road closure on the weekend pushed the problem to Canford Cliffs.

The Lakeside Road resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said cars were blocking drives and were parked on double yellows, adding that it was no longer a residential road but a “car park”.

She said: “We have been endeavouring to get the local authority to do something about the parking because it is becoming appalling.

Bournemouth Echo: Illegal parking in Lakeside Road

“We have made very little progress and the weekend was a prime example of that.

“We phoned the number where apparently tow trucks are sat at the ready, nobody turned up.

“Some people were not able to get out of their homes. We are pretty miffed, we would like to know where the millions of pounds which have been given to BCP Council have gone.

“There’s an app that nobody looks at and a swanky control room. Sandbanks seems to carry some weight, all of the efforts are on Sandbanks.

“We no longer know what to do because we are being failed by the local authority.

“There is a difference between tourism and day trippers. The tourists stay in the hotels, we are facing day trippers who bring everything with them bar the kitchen sink, leave rubbish and cause congestion.

“We welcome tourists, they need to address the issues with day trippers.”

Bournemouth Echo: Illegal parking in Lakeside Road

The resident called for more car parks in the area as well as more double yellows in the residential roads.

“We just want some action that works,” she added. “We want them to be honest, they keep raving about a great success, it’s not been a great success.

“We welcome visitors but we don’t welcome them when they cause the chaos they are causing.”

Bournemouth Echo: Sophie Ricketts of Op Galaxy at Churchill Gardens in Boscombe..

Sophie Ricketts, head of seasonal response at BCP Council, said: “BCP is open for business and we will continue to actively welcome visitors to the area each year.

“Closing roads is not done lightly but is a planned move built into our summer readiness planning to alleviate problems on the ground in specific locations to ensure emergency vehicles and residents can get through.

“We take a flexible approach so those roads are re-opened as soon as problems have subsided.

“Through proactive communications and advertising, onsite signage, parking marshals and digital signs on network trunk roads into the area, we encourage people to park responsibly and signpost them to where they can find available parking spaces.

“The park and ride site at Boscombe attracted 1200 users this weekend and a second planned site with services down to Sandbanks will begin running from the Civic Centre in Poole this week.

“However, we are aware there are still a number of people who will park irresponsibly but we have recruited significantly more enforcement officers this year who issued a record 1300 penalty notices this weekend and we have towaway trucks to tackle those who refute the rules including 15 vehicles this weekend.”