THE most worrying sentence in your report on the delayed scheme at the Winter Gardens came from Cllr Drew Mellor.

I quote “if the worst were to happen BDC did have the funds to provide for any loss on the project”.

I was MD of a medium size commercial property development company and if I was to make such a statement to my fellow directors in respect of a proposed project I would have been given the boot straight away.

This Winter Gardens saga has been going on for so many years and from what has been reported looks to be ever further away from reality.

If this project was to be undertaken by private enterprise the flats would be occupied by now but the council seem to have access to unlimited time to involve even more committee involvement which means the car park at the site of the Winter Gardens will be available for use for many years to come.

Another corker of a week for the council with the demise of the Beach Hut Bar thanks to the ludicrous licence conditions (be warned Branksome and Sandbanks their licence conditions could well see a short term life for those projects) and the possibility of the BCP Council’s debt threshold increasing to more than a billion pounds, with spending plans likened to a ponzi scheme according to a meeting of the corporate and community overview and scrutiny committee which followed a report from the chief finance officer.

ALAN BURDEN

Catalina Drive, Poole