A TOP officer has fired back over a councillor's claims that areas of Westbourne and West Cliff are becoming 'ghettos'.

As reported in the Daily Echo, Cllr Nick Rose said police are 'failing' across his ward, Westbourne and West Cliff.

In a letter to Inspector Adam Gill, who is responsible for Bournemouth South, Cllr Rose said there are “significant problems” with drug dealing and anti-social behaviour, with areas near the Mint and Manchester hotels, both of which are in St Michael’s Road, as well as the West Hill car park, particularly badly affected.

The councillor claimed both the council and police have allowed the area to "deteriorate to almost ghetto status over the past 15 to 20 years". Police involvement is "woefully limited", he said.

However, Insp Gill said: “We can categorically say that police have not withdrawn from the Westbourne or West Hill Road areas of Bournemouth and those areas are regularly patrolled each day.

“Bournemouth Community Safety Partnership, comprising the local council and other partner agencies, has directed priorities on county lines drug dealing, domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour.

“Dealing with county lines and dealers is not specific to singular pockets in the town. Officers regularly take action. For example, they stopped and arrested a man in the West Hill Road area on Friday on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A drugs. He has been released under investigation while enquiries continue. Also, there have been recent significant arrests in the area, where class A drugs were located along with large amounts of cash.

“We have ongoing cases in Westbourne that we are dealing with together with the local council anti-social behaviour team. The West Hill Action Group is currently being relaunched to deal with the present needs of the community. A joint police and council enviroclean initiative is also planned in the very near future.

“Officers attended two local meetings this week – West Cliff on Tuesday and Westbourne on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Cllr Nick Rose was not present at either meeting to discuss any concerns.”