THE hope is that, when the Bournemouth council special planning meeting takes place in October, the latest multi-million development for the Winter Gardens site will be thrown out. The scheme has been described as transformational but concerns have been raised about the impact it would have on nearby historic buildings.

Well the Winter Gardens itself is an historic site where the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra had its birth 125 years ago under its founder conductor Sir Dan Godfrey.

The demolition of the famous Winter Gardens Concert Hall in 2006 was a tragedy, especially following the strong campaign to save the building. Built as an indoor bowling green in 1937 and replacing the concert hall where the orchestra began in 1893, it had been skilfully converted after the war into the multi-purpose building so many of us still remember. Its perfect acoustic, wide platform and central location made it the ideal venue for the wide variety of events that took place there.

It hosted school speech days, political party conferences, summer shows, wrestling matches, Bournemouth Festival events as well as an annual Schools Carol Festival involving hundreds of children experiencing their first musical experience. Above all it was perfect concert hall for the BSO accessible as it was from all parts of the conurbation by public transport.

The millions squandered on building the IMAX and surf reef could have been spent on refurbishing the Winter Gardens hall or even building a new modern replacement such as that witnessed by the leader of Bournemouth council, John Beesley, and present BSO conductor Kirill Karabits when they travelled to Bilbao in Spain.

Whilst a car park remains in place there is still a hope for a third multi-purpose hall fit for the 21st century. The obvious site for such a modern building serving the new combined authority of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch must surely be the Winter Gardens.

RAYNER SKEET, Tuckton Road, Bournemouth