A workshop focused on coming up with ideas which could improve Bournemouth’s night time economy was held at the Citygate Centre last Wednesday.

Bournemouth Town Watch commissioned planning company Feria Urbanism to research into the night time industry and structure a series of workshops to combat the issues they discovered.

This was the second ‘Bournemouth by Night’ event to be held and it focused on creating a more concrete discussion between all the different people involved in Bournemouth’s night life.

Club and bar venue owners, members of the council and people from the planning, transport and tourism industry all attended to put forward their views.

Topics discussed included: coming up with a new brand for Bournemouth at night, improving the ‘public realm’ area outside venues, and discussing alternative entertainment that could be introduced during the evening.

Richard Eastham from Feria Urbanism was really pleased with the enthusiasm of everyone involved.

He said: “They’ve really answered the questions in detail, they’ve spent a lot of time debating it thoroughly and no one seemed to get bored which is really important.

“It’s only by getting people in the room together that you really get them to think seriously about it.”

Bournemouth Borough Council’s environmental health and licensing manager Louise Jones explained the importance of gathering a wide range of opinions.

She said: “I think it’s really good to have the cross section because we only ever get the councils ideas… so we don’t have an understanding of the people that are using the facilities within Bournemouth.”

Although the ideas being discussed in the workshop are not necessarily going to be applied to the night time economy, there is hope that the recommendations will spark changes which will benefit a wider range of people.

Jon Shipp, Night Time Economy Co-ordinator, said: “The framework of the workshops means that we will get the results that we need, I think there are already exciting ideas emerging.”