Bournemouth MP Conor Burns says town is 'intimidating and unsafe'

Mr Burns said he will work with whoever is elected to the local authority to find a better way of doing things in the town centre.

The Conservative MP for Bournemouth West said this upturn needed to start with a “big clean”.

He said the overriding message from thousands of responses to his residents’ survey was that frontline services like keeping streets clean, maintaining roads and tackling anti-social behaviour had taken a turn for the worse since the councils merger.

Speaking to the Daily Echo on Wednesday before residents went to polls yesterday, Mr Burns said: “I have become increasingly exercised about what is happening to not just our town centre but our wider area.

“Through the literally thousands of responses I have had to the survey that I undertake between every election, the number of people who feel that our area is in a sense declining and is not given the care that it needs is overwhelming.

“I wanted to say something about this now so I can’t be accused of seeking to influence the elections or because I don’t like the outcome of a set of elections the result of which at this point I don’t know.

“I can’t help but be driven to a conclusion that since BCP Council came into being, having watched it in various carnations of leadership – Unity Alliance, minority Tory, etc – that the focus on frontline services has diminished by comparison to what came before.

“There is a sense that our streets are unclean, the street drains are unclear, potholes are unfilled, road surfaces are unrepaired and the basic contract between the council taxpayer and the council seems increasingly broken.

“Therefore, what I want to say to this council, to its leadership both administratively and politically, whatever the latter emerges as in the days ahead, BCP Council needs to focus on the fundamentals.”

The former minister said in Bournemouth town centre there was a sense the beach is increasingly “the jewel in a place that no longer has a crown”.

Bournemouth beach

Mr Burns said he was struck by the resilience and optimism of town centre businesses in the face of a “tidal wave of bad news”.

All stakeholders had to produce ideas to reimagine the town centre and work together on how to give Bournemouth its next lease of life, he added.

“This is not about turning the clock back; it is about imagining a different and better way of doing things,” Mr Burns said.

“We need to start with a big clean in the town centre and a big focus on enforcing the law.

“One of the common themes from business owners and members of public alike is the vagrancy and aggressive begging that is encountered not just on a daily but hourly basis now in the town centre makes the town centre an unattractive, intimidating and unsafe place to be. That needs to change.

“When one business owner says to me you now have more chance of being fined for dropping a piece of litter in the town centre than you have of being challenged over a drug deal in broad daylight, something has gone fundamentally wrong.”

The Lower Gardens in Bournemouth

He said: “Dwelling in the town hall gives no one a monopoly on good ideas. It is time to engage business and civic society to help this town that we all care about.”

The backbench MP added: “I feel in some ways embarrassed about what is happening to our town and frustrated that there are so many people who want to be part of fixing this who are not being engaged or listened to."

BCP council has been contacted for a response.