MR Foster made several points in his letter (Daily Echo, March 13) about town centre developments and in particular the inability of Bournemouth council to provide a bus hub on the NCP site next to the Square.

Although the former bus station has never been owned by the council, it had been the strong hope of the council for several years that a bus hub could be provided on the site for the benefit of residents and visitors to Bournemouth.

The council made it very clear that the objective was to try to achieve a bus hub and reduce the pressure on Gervis Place.

However, even with the use of the council’s compulsory purchase powers, the cost of such a development simply became far too high as the new cinema leisure scheme gained funding from its private sector backers.

The council was therefore left with no option other than to withdraw from the compulsory purchase process.

In truth, it would probably have required capital of £15 million or more to be spent on securing the site with limited income from a bus hub to fund the capital cost.

I can imagine that we would have been criticised had the council borrowed the money and gone ahead with a scheme which was unviable at that level of cost.

We shall now have to continue to work on other alternatives to make Gervis Place safer and more accessible for pedestrians.

On a more general note Mr Foster complains about the various redevelopment schemes and the car parking problems he feels this may bring, despite the fact that there will be no reduction in car parking spaces across the town centre.

For years Bournemouth has been falling behind in terms of investment and in recent years the council has worked hard to reverse that trend.

The goal must be to support the local economy and attract more jobs to Bournemouth, as well as bringing about a vibrancy and freshness that this town centre renewal will achieve.

Change is inevitable, and not everybody will like all of it, but we must look forward for residents and visitors and plan for the future.

Yes, this will make the town centre busier with more variety for everyone, but we believe that is what is needed as we come out of the property recession.

We should be pleased that investors see Bournemouth as the place where they want to put their money and revitalise our town to take it forward to a better future.

CLLR DAVE SMITH, Bournemouth councillor & Portfolio Holder for Planning & Environment