THE boss of Beales has said Bournemouth’s town centre is currently “the worst” in his experience of trading in around 140 sites.

Tony Brown was endorsing the comments of Brewhouse & Kitchen pub boss Kris Gumbrell, who had told the Daily Echo the town centre was “dying”.

Mr Gumbrell had said the town needed a greater variety of retail rather than banking on hospitality. It also needed to give more help to rough sleepers and to deal with antisocial behaviour.

Mr Brown revived the Beales brand in Poole, Southport and Peterborough, but also trades in nearly 140 towns through another retail business, Bodycare.

“I see high streets up and down the country and the only people who care about Bournemouth town centre are probably the BID (Business Improvement District) – and they’re banging on a closed door I think,” he said.

He said BCP Council and its predecessors had been “deaf for probably a decade” to calls to improve the town centre.

“Kris is absolutely right. He sees it as I do across the country. He sees things like public realm being protected and active promotion of the town centre by councils, not just BIDs and town centre businesses.”

He added: “Bournemouth is probably the worst of what I see.”

He said there were “really bright people in Bournemouth” who should be listened to.

“I reckon in the next six months, BCP Council will announce another town centre policy. It will be as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike,” he added.

Bournemouth University retail expert Dr Jeff Bray predicted in 2018 that the town would not have three department stores in five years’ time. In the event, all three closed.

“I’ve always maintained that there’s a place for strong physical retail in our high street. However, maybe we’ve got too much of it in Bournemouth,” Dr Bray said.

“We have a revitalised Castlepoint at the moment which is the destination of choice if we want to go on a shopping expedition, because it has a wider variety of the main stores.

“There’s a great deal of property in Bournemouth town centre that I believe needs to be repurposed. Conversion of some of these properties, at least in part to residential, would bring more people and with more people it’s more shoppers.”

He added: “The biggest barrier has been the big institutional landlords who don’t wish to reduce rents because that has financial implications for them. It’s better to leave units empty than reduce levels, bizarrely.

“But new legislation is going to give councils powers to penalise landlords for keeping commercial premises vacant.”

BCP Council has said shopping is “just one of many things on offer” in modern town centres, alongside “cultural, hospitality and other services”.

It has pointed to the mix of uses at Bobby & Co in the former Debenhams building, as well as a programme of arts and cultural events. It has highlighted its Cleaner, Greener, Safer campaign to improve the town centre.