RUSSELL Mercer complains about Bournemouth Council spending £10,000 of public money cleaning up St Peter’s Churchyard in Central Bournemouth.

For years now the area around the church has been affected by rough sleepers, vagrants and others who have used the ‘overgrown’ grounds as a place to camp out and ultimately cause distress and alarm to many people, including the elderly who like to use the grounds as either a cut through or a place of solace to remember their loved ones who have since passed on.

Also many visitors like to visit the grounds because of its historical links to Bournemouth of old.

Now that works are progressing, there have been many favourable comments about how much safer people are feeling. Surveys continually tell us that antisocial behaviour is one of the main priorities that Bournemouth residents tell us that they want us to deal with and it is the intention of this administration to try and address that problem.

Mr Mercer also comments on the number of people suffering from food poverty in the Borough. Let’s not forget that at least three soup kitchens are provided at St Peter’s throughout the week which provides food and helps the homeless.

CLLR DAVID SMITH, Cabinet member with responsibility for community safety