BOSCOMBE: IS IT SURFING OR SUFFERING? (From Bournemouth Echo)

BOSCOMBE: IS IT SURFING OR SUFFERING?

7:00am Tuesday 7th July 2009

Print
Email
Share
Comments(73)

By Fiona Pendlebury »

ONLY weeks ago, interior designer Wayne Hemmingway visited Boscombe to launch the “most desirable beach huts in the UK”.

The Red or Dead label founder’s “surf pods” accompany the multi-million pound surf reef and Boscombe Overstrand development.

Read all our surf reef stories
- click the link at the bottom of this story

Due for completion in September, the reef will end up costing £3.03 million, while the entire Boscombe Spa Village project totals £11 million.

But just a few streets away it’s a very different story.

A 25-year-old man was left with life-threatening head injuries after a vicious assault in an alleyway off Roumelia Lane in the early hours of Saturday.

Just hours earlier, there were reports a man had been stabbed in nearby Heathcote Road. Witnesses described seeing the victim, who was thought to be in his 40s, being taken away by ambulance covered in blood.

He is believed to have suffered wounds to his throat and back during the attack, which took place at around 6.15pm outside a bank near the Christchurch Road junction.

Such violence is not unprecedented in Boscombe.

Last month Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood was allegedly punched by youths on a Saturday afternoon after confronting them about playing football in Boscombe shopping precinct.

It’s clear that, despite the vast amount of money being poured into part of Boscombe, the area still has its problems. But will making the beach into a surfer’s paradise really rid the area of its demons?

Boscombe West councillor Lisa Northover certainly thinks so.

“There are still problems, but you can’t just change things overnight. Recently the police have been doing an awful lot and they’ve had quite a good strategy for dealing with things in the precinct and surrounding area.”

Cllr Northover said money was being spent on art installations to try and attract seafront visitors to the shops and that the beach was starting to attract a different clientele.

“It’s a long process. These people that are drink and drug users or violent are often living in bedsit houses that are privately owned and it’s very difficult to do anything about it.

“The way we can change that is to improve the area so that landlords want more affluent people living in their houses. It would be really silly to just say ‘there’s still crime happening, it’s all a waste of money’ because it’s not.”

Cllr Chris Wakefield, also representing Boscombe West, agreed.“Those sorts of incidents could have happened anywhere in the country but it’s highlighted because Boscombe has a bad reputation, but it’s getting better.

“People want to come and live here, people want to come and trade here and people even want to come on holiday here.”

Cllr Wakefield’s view was echoed by Steve Kent, chairman of Boscombe Traders’ Association.

“Things like this can happen anywhere,” he said.“It’s happened in Kinson, in Bournemouth town centre. This is a blip. The police force is dealing with high volumes of visitors coming into the area without having funding to cope with it.”

Some residents and traders also feel Boscombe has improved.

“You can just feel the energy is really different,” said Joanne Guest, 37, of Boscombe Overcliff Drive.

She added that many of the drunks and other unsavoury characters found in the precinct a year ago seemed to have disappeared.

Jon Burdge, co-owner of Café Boscanova, added: “There’s no question there has been massive improvement. There are more young couples here, it’s becoming more bohemian.

“I live in Lymington which is supposedly an upper middle class sleepy market town and I wouldn’t see any more trouble here than there.”

However not everyone shared that view.

Trudie Carter-Pavelin, 16, of Manor Road, said most of her friends were too scared to walk around the area at night.

She added: “I got this drunk man stumble up to me asking what were we doing there and we shouldn’t sit there and he wouldn’t go away. You can’t walk through here without getting comments. It’s not very nice.”

Mum-of-two Debbie Mooney lives in Highcliffe and regularly shops in Boscombe, but said she would not feel safe in the area at night.

“I have a 20-year-old daughter and she’d never come here at night.

“A few years ago we were in a cafe and this guy was shooting up in the toilets and came out ranting and raving. I think quite a few people go in the gardens and have a drink.”

Shirley McKenna runs community events from premises in Roumelia Lane.

While she said the area had improved, she said more investment was needed to make Boscombe safer.

“We’ve managed to move on a lot of the drink and drug stuff, but it still gravitates there, it’s got nowhere else to go.

“The new apartments look very nice, but as soon as they come to the precinct, what have we got to offer? There was a delay with the surf reef and a lot of people put their business plans together based on that and they’re not here now.

“Bournemouth is very proud of being Investors in People, but where’s their investment in the community? All I can do is put my prayers in Boscombe.”

Print
Email
Share
Comments(73)

Your Say YourEcho

ferret38, bournemouth says...
7:18am Tue 7 Jul 09

Boscombe seafront and garden project has really come up trumps , The only problem with boscombe center there are too many drug treatment projects going on this inturn brings all the dolelites , junkies , and beggers drunks and thiefs to the area. These people wont move away as its too easy to get benifits and any crime they do will result in a softheaded judge giving a light or micky mouse sentance that is laughable so on goes the circle in boscombe