BOURNEMOUTH’S full council voted down an attempt to renegotiate the Boscombe surf reef contract with constructors ASR.

On Tuesday night they voted 39-5 against the move by the reef’s most vocal critic, Cllr Ben Grower.

He claimed the council was trying to spend and spin its way out a dreadful position after reef costs went up from £1.2m to £3.3m.

And he said instead of paying £70,000 for public art by the Boscombe Pier that looks like a “holocaust memorial” we should have paid for a statue of a goat on a surfboard as a summary of the contract.

Council leader Stephen MacLoughlin said the council’s project management might at times have been “out of its depth” but added: “Having got to where we are it would be ridiculous to abandon it.

“It’s changing Bournemouth and Boscombe for the better and we need to see it through.”