RESIDENTS have now moved into a town centre flat after the council couldn’t get the building hooked up to electricity.
Earlier this year, it was reported by the Echo that residents couldn’t move into the new block of flats in the former Cabbage Patch car park at the end of St Stephen’s Road, Bournemouth town centre.
This was because an electricity substation hadn’t been installed as part of the planning application by BCP Council.
According to planning committee councillors, it was only when the developers tried to connect to the electricity board that the need for a substation was realised.
Paul Hilliard, the eastern planning committee chairman, said: “It was only when they tried to hook into the electric system that the electric company said ‘no, you need your own substation’.
“That wasn’t known until they started building so it is chicken and egg really that they’ve moved forward, realised they couldn’t plug into the grid and need its own substation.”
Cllr Michael Tarling added: “It's not uncommon to make an application for a low voltage connection for a building to find out there’s not sufficient capacity and the original electricity company will say you need a high voltage connection and a substation.”
BCP Council as the landowner has been the one largely responsible for the Cabbage Patch car park development.
The scheme – a five-storey block of 11 flats with nine parking spaces – was given approval in 2020 with a budget of £2.369m.
Around 65 per cent of the total scheme cost will be funded through capital receipts, housing revenue account (HRA) reserves and s106 contributions.
A further £815,000 of prudential borrowing was required within the HRA to fund the rest, repaid over a period of 50 years.
BCP Council said in a report in 2020 that after 50 years, the scheme will generate a surplus of around £75,000 per year.
The land, next to the Wessex Way, has been used as a car park since the 1970s and most recently by the council for staff parking.
At the eastern planning committee held on Thursday, August 1, councillors voted unanimously in favour of the substation’s installation, which was already installed some time ago so people can move in.
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