I HAD visitors last weekend.

I promised to take them for a walk down Boscombe Chine Gardens saying that it was “the loveliest walk down to the sea in England”.

How disappointed we were.

The gardens have grown wild with natural and cultivated plants completely out of control.

The formal flowerbeds are unkempt and the walks are full of debris and dog excrement.

We could not reach Boscombe Pier quick enough.

If the gardens are going to be an attraction for the locals and tourists alike, some radical horticulture works need doing urgently.

Father Tom Grufferty

St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Christchurch