Your correspondent from Blandford writes regarding the Royal Arcade, which is a beautiful building in the heart of Boscombe, full of history. I would like to reassure her that we are working hard to bring it back to life. In fact, on regular weekends, it is bustling and busy with the hugely successful vintage market (first Saturday of each month) and the arts fair (last Sunday of every month). We are also working hard with the owners, Arnewood Estates, to attract new businesses into the shops, especially, but not exclusively, from the creative arts which fit so well into that part of Boscombe. Many of the original stalls on the vintage market, which has been voted best of it’s kind in the South West, have now grown enough to have moved into shops, some on Christchurch Road in Pokesdown, which has enabled more from the ever growing waiting list to start trading in the vintage market.

Our street market in the precinct has recently teamed up with the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs in the area to start up a business on the market. Through a scheme called First Pitch, supported by Bournemouth Borough Council, Bournemouth’s small business owners of the future can trade on Boscombe Market for up to 12 months at discounted rents and are given personalised support from the NMTF. These stalls will naturally be of a wide variety, but some will undoubtedly be of the creative arts kind.

Bringing inward investment to Boscombe is one of the council’s priorities and, together with all the other initiatives in the pipeline, we are sure that the vibrant centre that we all wish for will become a reality.

Councillor Jane Kelly, Ward Member for Boscombe West, Cabinet Member for Partnerships & Regeneration