Older street, postwar block or detached house? Each is its own job
Each is planned differently, because one ward holds older, denser streets, postwar blocks of flats and suburban detached houses. In the ward as a whole, 35% of households live in a purpose-built block of flats (Census 2021); the ward-by-ward figures for Poole set that against the rest of the town.
BCP Council's 2024 draft plan for Parkstone, a consultation draft, describes the ward's homes area by area. North of Commercial Road and Bournemouth Road, in the Ashley Cross neighbourhood, it finds informal street layouts at low or medium density, in a mix of styles from the 1930s onwards. Elsewhere in the ward it names three more, each a different job on moving day.
- Denser, older streets. In Upper Parkstone and the Ashley Cross conservation area, mostly Victorian, Edwardian and interwar homes on more formal layouts.
- Streets of postwar flats. Some streets south of Commercial Road and Bournemouth Road are mainly purpose-built flats, Belle Vue Road among them.
- Suburban houses. Elsewhere south of those roads, mostly interwar or postwar detached houses and estates, some among mature trees.
So say which kind of street you are on when you ring. A top-floor flat on a postwar block and a detached house with a loft are planned as different jobs.
How it works
What happens between your call and the written price?
Same three steps for a terrace, a block of flats or a house with a loft.
- Flat or house?
- Survey, home or video
- Figure in writing
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Flag a flat at either end
Give both postcodes, the size of the move and a phone number, and say if either home is a flat.
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Add the stairs, the door and the street
Room by room, then the stairs, the garden or the shop door, and the nearest place a van could stop.
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Weigh the figure against the survey
Terrace, flat above a shop or house with a loft, check the figure against what you showed the surveyor.
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Google reviews of Moving Professionals, as shown on its website in November 2026.
Flat above a shop? Show the surveyor the stairs to the street door
Show the surveyor the stairs down to the street door, as for any flat. Ashley Cross has parades of shops along Commercial Road, Station Road and Church Street. The former Borough of Poole's 2012 appraisal of the conservation area says its commercial buildings, many of them three storeys, normally sit at the back of the pavement, and that Commercial Road carries heavy traffic and bus routes.
- The shop, at the back of the pavement.
- The street door to the flats, and every flight behind it.
- The flat itself, one or two floors up.
- The pavement and the road, and where a van can stand.
On a road that busy, show the surveyor where a van could stop. The homes in the residential streets nearby are mostly two storeys, set back behind small front gardens.
Questions
What if there's a busy road outside, or a shop below?
Rather ring?
Does a busy road outside change the move?
It can change where the van stands. Show the surveyor the pavement and the road. Often nothing is needed from the council. If something is, the application is the removals team's job, and you hear before booking if something is needed from you.
Moving out of a flat above a shop?
Tell the surveyor where the street door is and how many flights lead up to it.
Is a flat on a postwar block quoted differently from a house?
The steps are the same, and the price follows the access, so give the floor and the stairs when you ring.
Sources for this page, read in November 2026:
- BCP Council: Local Plan consultation draft, Parkstone (March 2024)
- Borough of Poole: Ashley Cross Conservation Area appraisal and management plan (2012), now on BCP Council's website
- Office for National Statistics: Census 2021, accommodation type by ward (TS044), via the Nomis bulk download
Get a Parkstone move surveyed
Ring, or send both postcodes and say whether each end is a terrace, a flat or a house.