BOTH Poole and Bournemouth used to have a proud reputation as places to come to for holidays and to shop in.

Times have changed, however. Holidaymakers have turned into day trippers that leave their rubbish all over the beach or stag/hen parties who just want to have a good time for a night. The family going to a hotel or B&B for their week’s holiday is a thing of the past.

As recent stories have shown, the high street is in alarming decline. Supermarkets have moved to the outskirts of town and most people would rather drive there for free parking to get their weekly shopping than come into town and pay over the odds prices. Otherwise we turn to the internet for those things we can`t find elsewhere.

Then there`s the ludicrous office building. In the Lansdowne area of Bournemouth there are offices being built. Acres of office space being built among all those other office spaces that have been empty for decades.

None of the above are sustainable any more so new solutions must found.

The only way forward that I can see is to forget the hospitality trade, realise that the high street is dead and stop building offices that will never be used and rebuild Poole and Bournemouth with homes. Homes that local people can afford. Not buildings that will be bought up by speculators for a quick buck but homes that local people can raise their families in.

Poole and Bournemouth are dying. Let’s breathe life back into our towns by giving the populace somewhere to afford to live.

JASON ROBSON

Christchurch Road, Bournemouth