ALAN Burden's long letter (22 Jan) begins "History tells us that whilst Rome was burning, Nero kept playing the fiddle." Perhaps people should be aware that there is no historical evidence for this ancient myth being true.

Alan Burden then discusses Bournemouth town centre, closure of a Poole Park entrance, 20mph speed limits and the sale of a Canford Cliff Car Park. He closes his letter with an Echo headline which quoted BCP Tory Group Leader Cllr Philip Broadhead describing today's BCP administration, “They’ve given up on Bournemouth!”

There is a certain consistency with these quotes.

The quoted Cllr Broadhead leads the political group that for years presided over the steady decline of Bournemouth town centre. Most recently it pauperised BCP Council which massively limits the abilities of the present council to help.

I should support this accusation of 'pauperising'. BCP Council accounts show it plain as day. The two years wholly controlled by the Tories show BCP deficits of £86 million and £44 million, these on-going overspends only now being addressed.

It was during these years that selling the Canford Cliffs car park was planned by BCP FuturePlaces Ltd with Cllr Broadhead as a Director. He also chaired the BCP Council Cabinet meeting which approved these plans ten months ago, along with committed spending of £660,000.

Further, it is the same Cllr Broadhead who incorrectly likens future 20mph speed limit ideas for BCP to the blanket legislation introduced in Wales. He then brands it as "anti-car," as he does the trial closure of a rat run through Poole Park. Perhaps this is due to the statistics which show that car users are a minority of the dead & injured in accidents, statistics which thus do suggest 20mph limits are more about the safety of non-car users.

Of course car drivers, bikers and pedestrians are not competitors, but fellow travellers.

Dr Martin Rodger

Bloxworth Road,

Parkstone