THE truth will out – that’s the claim of a councillor after people were warned away from the Boscombe surf reef more than a year after he first raised safety concerns.

Cllr Basil Ratcliffe said in February 2010 that a council officer had identified “all sorts of faults” including holes that you could get a foot stuck in.

Bournemouth Borough Council this week put up signs advising people not to use the reef after it found the shape of the reef had changed.

Cllr Ratcliffe was also part of a task-and-finish team that last year commissioned an independent safety inspection, which identified “serious problems” with the reef.

He said: “The council is trying to pretend there’s nothing wrong with it.”

Bournemouth Council said it made the decision to advise surfers not to use the reef after a scheduled six-monthly inspection.

Tony Williams, executive director, said: “The closure is precautionary. It doesn’t mean that the reef is necessarily unsafe, just that we need to find out more about its condition.

“Once that has been established we can initiate any necessary maintenance repairs and proceed with the planned refinement works scheduled with the contractor ASR.”

Surfer and watersports photographer Chris Skone-Roberts said that within a few months of the reef opening, its seaward face had been pounded into a sheer wall that created dangerous rip-tides.

ASR is due to return this spring to work on the reef after a Plymouth University expert said it was only meeting four out of 11 performance targets.

Mr Williams said the council was “optimistic” that ASR could address any new issues when it did the planned refinement work.