In reply to Cllr Anne Filer (Bring back Golden Mile, Have Your Say, October 7), what a wonderful bit of nostalgia.

I, too, knew Boscombe as it was and can remember the excitement of going there for shopping.

The Golden Mile has become rather debased and most of the empty shops are due to the recession, not the lack of shoppers in the area.

Boscombe was a holiday area and the roads between the town and the sea were filled with bed and breakfast hotels.

Today the same buildings have become accommodation for various homeless and social enterprises. Others have been converted into flats.

The shops have changed and now cater for the shoppers of Boscombe, hence shops like Primark, TJ Hughes and Wilkinsons, not to mention the various bargain shops.

The phoenix will not rise from the ashes.

The council allowed the Castlepoint development and this started the demise of Boscombe as a shopping centre.

Holidaymakers no longer travel though Boscombe on their way to their hotels – we now have the Wessex Way.

Doing away with the pedestrian area would be the final nail in Boscombe’s coffin.

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