I read with great interest the comments and the walkabout the Daily Echo did with Pam Donnellan, the chief executive of Bournemouth Borough Council, as Pam lives in Boscombe (Daily Echo, November 17).

Sorry, Pam, much as I have great respect for you, your observations and comments seem far removed from the Boscombe I see and hear about.

I was with you on the Neighbourhood Management Board and if I was to put my hand on heart, it was a total failure.

Neighbourhood Management was too strategic and in the early days became a begging bowl for all those agencies which had shortfalls.

We should have invested in local people – those who live and work there.

We manufactured regeneration and did not allow for natural regeneration to take place.

Yes, Neighbourhood Management had good ideas, but all that we implemented has either ceased or is a shadow of its former self as the council had no money to sustain the individual projects.

I have not been to Boscombe for a while and, the other day, I went.

I was horrified at the number of shops empty.

Even HSBC Bank, opposite McDonald’s has gone, and a long established restaurant as well.

Maybe the seafront does look nice with all the work that has taken place. However, it is far removed from the reality, north of Christchurch Road and the precinct, that bring the eye to focus on the problems that have been there for many years.

Much as I believe that Boscombe has potential – and it certainly has in the residents, traders and hoteliers who give up much of their spare time – it still needs a council that is dedicated in supporting and developing structures in the promotion of the area.

Nigel Gillespie, Fryer Close, Bournemouth