A WATERSPOUT which erupted from a damaged fire hydrant in Bournemouth town centre earlier this week has inspired calls for the town to acquire its own Jet d’Eau.

The 7.5m impromptu plume burst forth from the BH2 construction site in Exeter Road on Tuesday afternoon, and although it was somewhat short of the Swiss landmark’s 140m, comparisons were soon being made.

Onlookers described the fresh water geyser as “amazing” and “a bit of entertainment”, but borough councillor Philip Stanley-Watts has been inspired to take the idea further.

“I saw it when I went past on the upper floor of a double decker bus,” said Cllr Stanley-Watts.

"Obviously someone had made a mistake, but there were a lot of people around it, a lot of smiling faces.

“I thought, what Bournemouth needs is a fountain like that.”

Straight away the councillor, who is the council’s representative for the Bournemouth/Lucerne twinning group, found his thoughts turning to the iconic Jet d’Eau on the edge of Lake Geneva (le lac Léman) in the city of the same name.

Now he is planning to put forward the idea for consideration at the next tourism and leisure committee meeting.

“I’m not sure that is quite the right location for it,” he added.

“Perhaps somewhere in the gardens or along the seafront. I think it would be a big draw for the town.

"I don't think it should be funded through council tax though, it should be through the BID or a business.

"I'm sure it would be challenging for the engineers but it could be done."

In a quirky parallel, should the fountain ever built in Bournemouth, it will have been inspired by accident, just as the Geneva Jet was originally built as a safety valve for a hydraulic power plant. Its tourist appeal was soon spotted by civic bosses.

Building the fountain would be a substantial engineering challenge. The Jet d’Eau consumes a huge amount of electricity to pump 500 litres of water every second.

The ‘Bournemouth Jet’ would not be the first imitation of the inspiring Swiss design. King Fahd’s Fountain in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is the tallest of the style in the world rising as high as 300m, at speeds of around 230mph, drawing salt water from the Red Sea.

The fountain of Fountain Hills, Arizona, which was built by Robert McCulloch who famously bought and reconstructed London Bridge in the desert, reaches a maximum height of 170m.

Perhaps more feasibly, the gardens of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire boast the ‘Emperor Fountain’, which has notched up a maximum height of 90m, powered by water falling through a 122m underground pipe.