THE organiser of the disappointing Roar on the Shore event, which turned out to be more of a whimper for many of the thousands of visitors who flocked to Bournemouth beachfront, has defended the display, saying it all went to plan.

Ali Robertson, display manager for Fantastic Fireworks, the company behind the much-hyped event on Thursday night, said Bournemouth should be proud to have been part of the world record rocket launch attempt.

And while she apologised if the display did not meet spectators' expectations she staunchly defended the record-breaking fireworks and said all of the 110,000 rockets had to launch within 30 seconds in order to break the record.

She said: "The fireworks did exactly what we thought they should. While it still needs to be ratified by the Guinness Book of Records, we do believe that we broke it.

"I am gutted that people were expecting something other than 110,000 rockets going up at one time."

She also denied reports the display was late in starting, saying they had been told the event kicked-off at 9.30pm and kept to the schedule they had been told.

She added: "The display started bang on time, with a six minute display and then the world record attempt."

And she also downplayed the flames that appeared to pour from the barge saying that the vessel was "slightly singed but otherwise undamaged".

Read the full statment from Fantastic Fireworks here

Criticisms have poured in to the Echo from visitors bitterly disappointed by the event, which promised sixty seconds of spectacular pyrotechinics with 114,000 fireworks all going off at once in a world record attempt.

Nicola Craig wrote: "The fireworks were appalling. We could hardly see them from the cliff side and if that was 110,000 fireworks then I must have blinked and missed it. I wish I had never gone."

Charlotte Curtis also said: "Was it not supposed to be 110,000 in sixty seconds? It lasted for five minutes and had absolutely no roar. Roar on the Shore? More like Bore on the Shore."