Christchurch Waitrose car park ANPR scheme approved by BCP Council

A PLAN to scrap pay-and-display machines for ANPR cameras in a Christchurch town centre car park has been given the green light.

The scheme for Waitrose in Christchurch will “dramatically improve the efficiency” of the site, according to supermarket representatives.

Planning permission has been granted by BCP Council for three cameras to be mounted on tall poles which the supermarket giant said will be “very discreet”, along with 28 bollards at the entrance and exit.

Until now shoppers have paid for a tickets at parking machines or used an app when leave their vehicle in the bypass car park at Fountain Roundabout,

Now they will take a ticket on entry and pay on exit, and number plates will be captured by the cameras.

The cameras will operate only during car parking hours, and an area for permit holders will remain.

In a planning statement, Waitrose representatives said the new system will “eliminate customers having to pre-pay for a ticket to display in their vehicle” and having to return to “top up their ticket should they spend longer than originally planned”.

They added: “The proposed features are entirely appropriate within the car park setting. They will be very discreet in nature and appearance and will have no impact on amenity or the character and appearance of the surrounding area. They will simply allow the car park to be better managed.”

Waitrose car park “overlaps” the site of a known Saxon cemetery but Steve Wallis, senior archaeologist at Dorset Council, who was consulted about the new parking system, said that although Neolithic remains, a Bronze Age ring ditch and a number of Saxon burials were found there during an excavation in 1977, the site would not be disturbed during the installation of the new scheme.

He said: “If I understand correctly, the main area was excavated totally.”

“As I understand it the elements of the proposed development that would involve groundworks are the digging of holes for the bollards and the camera poles. However, I assume that the bollard holes would be relatively shallow and so would be unlikely to have an archaeological impact.”

Mr Wallis said he assumed that “most if not all” of the significant archaeology had been removed during the ’70s excavation.

Waitrose manages the car park, but leases the site from Christchurch Town Council.