Boscombe offered support to revitalise high street (From Bournemouth Echo)

Unless this scheme can offer "specialist support" to "revitalise" the people who hang around Boscombe precinct and Pokesdown to make them "more attractive" or even mildly less offensive the scheme will be simply another one to add to the list of schemes that have failed to have a positive impact on Boscombe.

Lets have a cycle track down the centre!

Well the indoor market will certainly bring in a higher class of customers...........
....................
...NOT. It didnt work near Argos and it work work in TJ Hughes old site. I fear it will be full of cheap imitation clothing and handbags similar to those being sold ont he street market. i income tax no VAT no money back no guarantee springs to mind!

She said the funding would help pay for a review of the layout of Boscombe precinct and work to improve Boscombe street market.

thr review was promised 5 years ago by ex-ceo and cll Chapman but nothing was ever done where was money from that
Also £60,000 year profit from Boscombe Market goes into tourisms funding to cover there overspends this market had a turnover of £130,000 pounds a year not a penny went back to Boscombe and is never advertised in Bournemouth town centre that it exists perhaps the council can answer why

Don't bother with ANY INITIATIVE TO IMPROVE THE PLACE until you have sorted out the 60 rehabs centres in the area!!!
How more obvious does it have to be???

I wish I could say this will signal an improvement - I really do. My gut feeling is this will be an excuse to dig up the pedestrianised area, which I believe will discourage trade even further.
Think of the places you go and visit and end up spending longer than you perhaps intended. Obviously, its because there are things of interest that keep you there.
If the pedestrianised area was taken out and you were able to drive through the High Street - that's just what you are likely to do....keep driving. The pedestrianised area aids to keep people in the area shopping; Boscombe's reputation is what inhibits people from coming to the area.
For Boscombe to began to improve, it is fundamental that there is a reduction in drug addicts coming to the area; we are saturated with people on benefits who have no money to spend in the shops. There is a correlation between addicts anywhere in the world and increased crime....so not a place you want to be hanging around in.

rehabs and supported housing brings at least 500-1000 people in to boscombe every year, residential rehab puts people into 3rd stage 'dry houses' which can cost bournemouth tax payers up to £500 a week plus council costs in inspections etc, this is one aspect of the poverty industry that is rampant in boscombe, another is inferior housing rented at high costs and paid for by benefits. I fear that too much money is being made via the "poverty industry" for any realistic changes to be made to it, Bournemouth council does very well in Government subsidies by having an area such as Boscombe, and I'm sure the council leaders and bigwigs don't want to lose their Christmas Bonuses and inflated salaries and jobs for the boys in the pointless initiatives and reports they undertake.

Still maybe they could start by getting rid of that awful macdonalds building...

I would have thought that using the money to find a way to fill all the empty shops would have been a good start but as i am not some expensive expert what do i know.

How many more new schemes will there be to revitalize this dumping ground.

More money down the drain on yet another initiative which is doomed to failure.

Tom 'Boscombe' Jones wrote:
rehabs and supported housing brings at least 500-1000 people in to boscombe every year, residential rehab puts people into 3rd stage 'dry houses' which can cost bournemouth tax payers up to £500 a week plus council costs in inspections etc, this is one aspect of the poverty industry that is rampant in boscombe, another is inferior housing rented at high costs and paid for by benefits. I fear that too much money is being made via the "poverty industry" for any realistic changes to be made to it, Bournemouth council does very well in Government subsidies by having an area such as Boscombe, and I'm sure the council leaders and bigwigs don't want to lose their Christmas Bonuses and inflated salaries and jobs for the boys in the pointless initiatives and reports they undertake.

Still maybe they could start by getting rid of that awful macdonalds building...

I've always wondered why the Council haven't done anything about the rehabs.
We have had addicts coming to the area since the late 1960's - so this influx has been known to the Council for over 50 years...that's pretty shocking.
The Echo reported that we have 60 such places in Boscombe so by my calculations if each one took only 5 people at a time for 3 months (12 weeks is supposed to be the rehab period) that means at least 1,000 people each year - as "Tom" says. What is worrying about this is the success rate is really poor - a quick google states its under 30% - this leaves more than 70% unsuccessful.
So of the 1,000 a year coming to Boscombe 700 are likely to still be using drugs. As Boscombe is rife with drugs, they are likely to stay, form relationships which result in children who will be influenced by their parents and their circle of associates.
700 staying in the area each year at £500 a month costs B'mth tax payer £4.2 MILLION....PER YEAR....that is JUST for RENT ALONE, common sense tells us that's a huge incentive for our Council to do something. My question is, why aren't they?
How are people, who lived outside of B'mth before they went into rehabs, suddenly allowed to get benefits from our Council? This also ties into the HMO's and the proliferation of one bedroom flats - without these in abundance it will be unaffordable for them to stay.
As the Council have been aware of these extraordinarily high costs for many years, why are they not forcing landlords to improve their properties by only paying what the real market rate for them is. Landlords that can't be found but suddenly get only £100 a month for a dump instead of £500 will - I am sure - be more amenable to suggestions they convert their dumps to good sized family accommodation, which will then out price what addicts can afford and give families in the area a nice home.
Although, the flats planned for the Argos building was knocked back, they are likely to get the go ahead. There are more going up in Palmerston Road and also in Christchurch Rd near the old job centre - that puts the number of one and two bedroom flats at about 200, this is not for families but will provide more accommodation for addicts.
The Council don't listen to the community, we are just left out as though we are disinterested parties. Decisions are made but we don't know why or how but we are supposed to be pleased. They were going to tell us about all their plans about what they decided was best for us....that was months ago...so where are they?
How would the Councillors like it if someone came into their own home and decided how they were to live?

"as part of the ongoing work to regenerate the area.”


Degenerate the area more like.

If you set out to make a mess of the place you would struggle to do better than what has been happening there.

The answer is pretty clear to almost everyone, bar those initiative junkies who seem oblivious to the real cause.

There are far, far too many people with drink and drug problems living in Boscombe.

They are there because there is an enormous amount of money being made housing them -usually in grossly overpriced squalid, accomodation.

Is anything being done to deal with that? No.

Instead all we get is news of more money being wasted on farcical initiatives, schemes, plans etc. We see a quarter of a million pound wasted on scrap iron dumped along sea Road, which is now rusting away. £55,000 totally wasted turning the much used Crescent Gardens into a deserted 'bomb site'.

This is not 'fantastic news for Boscombe', it is an insult and yet another total waste of money.

So How much support are they looking ,I can offer a 2000lb Bomb Im sure that will help Boscombe.

I remember sitting on The SRB 6 Boscombe Working Community Partnership Board(1.4 million pound area based EU regeneration funding) 2001-2005 with Cat MacMillan. I was a community representative. By that I mean I am a typical Boscombe West resident, living in a rented HMO (owned by a Former Chairman of the National Landlords Association) Richard Price, who has affiliations with Dr Peter Turnbell of the Providence Project and second stage housing projects for people with mental health and drug abuse problems. I live in two rooms in a house with between nine and fifteen other people. The house is designed for eight, sharing three toilets, and two bathrooms between us. Over the years living in Boscombe I have attended 12 step meetings, I sat on various housing forums, Mental Health support groups, tenants union, area forums and taken part in various protests locally and in London I consider myself well informed on this subject. I think after all the wasted millions pumped through the National Treatment Agency, Primary Care Trusts, the Police, Prison and Courts services, all the millions wasted in public funds, but mostly all the thousands of lives lost in a futile war on drugs and all the unintended consequences I think part of the solution is to end the war on drugs. Revoke the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and introduce a humane and public health evidence based approach to the fact that people take drugs. then I think a lot of the issues we see today and everyday in our neighbourhood would more or less disappear overnight.

The war on drugs:
Is there another way?
Released today: New Count the Costs briefing on alternatives to the war on drugs

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Statement to the General Assembly of the United Nations, October 2012

For over 50 years the war on drugs has dominated drug policy. As detailed by the Count the Costs initiative, this punitive approach has failed to achieve its stated goals, instead generating huge costs. Released today, the latest Count the Costs briefing outlines possible alternatives to the disastrous war on drugs.

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Gary Sherborne wrote:
I remember sitting on The SRB 6 Boscombe Working Community Partnership Board(1.4 million pound area based EU regeneration funding) 2001-2005 with Cat MacMillan. I was a community representative. By that I mean I am a typical Boscombe West resident, living in a rented HMO (owned by a Former Chairman of the National Landlords Association) Richard Price, who has affiliations with Dr Peter Turnbell of the Providence Project and second stage housing projects for people with mental health and drug abuse problems. I live in two rooms in a house with between nine and fifteen other people. The house is designed for eight, sharing three toilets, and two bathrooms between us. Over the years living in Boscombe I have attended 12 step meetings, I sat on various housing forums, Mental Health support groups, tenants union, area forums and taken part in various protests locally and in London I consider myself well informed on this subject. I think after all the wasted millions pumped through the National Treatment Agency, Primary Care Trusts, the Police, Prison and Courts services, all the millions wasted in public funds, but mostly all the thousands of lives lost in a futile war on drugs and all the unintended consequences I think part of the solution is to end the war on drugs. Revoke the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and introduce a humane and public health evidence based approach to the fact that people take drugs. then I think a lot of the issues we see today and everyday in our neighbourhood would more or less disappear overnight.

I get one of your points that what has been done so far in Boscombe has been futile. What I don't get is your next point?
From what I understand (just stuff I've looked at online, I admit) is that the most successful way to help addicts is to detox, then have an abstinence programme with counselling for an extended period of time - apparently at least 12 weeks. Even this is only just under 30% successful as opposed to methadone, which is a mere 3%. So is this seems the "evidence based approach" your talking about?
I don't know what the UN Convention has to say, is it the same?
What is for sure, is that allowing more appalling or tiny one bedroomed accommodation to be supplied to people, who moved into Boscombe specifically for rehab and then stay in Boscombe, can't in anyway help those who live in the area.
I think most reasonably informed people know that alcoholism and drug addiction is a health issue - how can allowing people to stay in an area saturated with drugs and drug addicts help them to stay clean and live a full life? At the same time, accommodation for families and those who live in the area is not catered for - either in terms of something decent or appropriate.
The Council have ignored this for years and now are amazed there are 60 places for addicts - I find there surprise disingenuous to say the least.
Perhaps, I'm just getting more and more angry at all these so called initiatives to help Boscombe and the pretence of the Council to listen to us and yet carry on doing what they want. For me, the last straw came with the combination of the Council ignoring 1,000 of us objecting to the Art Centre being demolished and finding out that even more money is to be spent on the seafront and with minor piddle amounts for Boscombe centre.
Like a fool I have listened for years to the Councillors thinking they were actually going to do something...no more, I've had enough.
You've obviously lived in the area for a long time, it a **** disgrace that you have to live in such a tiny shared space. You should be able to rely on this Council to make sure landlords bring their property up to a standard they would be happy to live in themselves.

newsabout wrote:
I wish I could say this will signal an improvement - I really do. My gut feeling is this will be an excuse to dig up the pedestrianised area, which I believe will discourage trade even further.
Think of the places you go and visit and end up spending longer than you perhaps intended. Obviously, its because there are things of interest that keep you there.
If the pedestrianised area was taken out and you were able to drive through the High Street - that's just what you are likely to do....keep driving. The pedestrianised area aids to keep people in the area shopping; Boscombe's reputation is what inhibits people from coming to the area.
For Boscombe to began to improve, it is fundamental that there is a reduction in drug addicts coming to the area; we are saturated with people on benefits who have no money to spend in the shops. There is a correlation between addicts anywhere in the world and increased crime....so not a place you want to be hanging around in.

I have to disagree about pedestrianisation, traffic was the life-blood of a traditional high street or old style town centre - anywhere. Pedestrianisation started in the seventies, if anything mechanical moved ban it and put down a paving slab seems to have been the principle.

Time for a rethink and reversal I believe. Tear down the negative 'No Entry' signage and actually encourage people to pass through and see what is there, they may stay, or return another time, to spend money.

The sort of 'radical' thinking Boscombe really needs should include considering re-opening Christchurch Road and top-end Sea Road to all traffic including buses.

Part of Centenary Way could instead be used for the Market and other street events. Two of Bournemouth's busiest bus stops were in this pedestrianised precinct area, so put them back - it has to be worth a try.

As for this latest 'initiative' pure Boscombe blah, blah yet again I fear.