There’s no lack of vision in borough

When we took office in 2007, we realised that Bournemouth needed a long-term strategic vision for the future development of the town and we undertook the widest ever public consultation to help formulate the Town Centre Vision. This led to our strategic partnership with Morgan Sindall Investments and the formation of the Bournemouth Development Company.

Town centre regeneration and comprehensive development of strategic Bournemouth sites are key to the success of our plans, but, of course, the deepest and longest property recession in living memory has prevented progress, just as it has done up and down the country, except in parts of central London. Bournemouth cannot buck that trend but will be ready to attract the investment we so urgently need, just as soon as the banks are lending again, particularly to the development industry and the leisure sector in particular.

In the meantime, the Bournemouth Development Company is bringing forward three major schemes at Leyton Mount and Madeira Road, all of which would be extremely unlikely to commence without the council kick-starting them at the moment, in the way the government are encouraging us to do.

Mr James describes himself as a local businessman for 30 years and I welcome any positive input he may have in addition to that which we have been given from many key people in the Bournemouth business community over the past few years. There is certainly no lack of vision or experience at Bournemouth council, but we do need to be realistic about the timing of our regeneration programme as the private sector has very little finance to offer at present. I should welcome the opportunity to explain to Mr James what we have planned if he would like to get in touch and become part of the solution. All he has to do is contact me at the Town Hall and we can go forward from there.

CLLR JOHN BEESLEY Leader of the Council, Bournemouth Town Hall