MY attention has been drawn to the contrast between the redevelopment taking place in the Lansdown/St Pauls area and the lack of any improvement down in the town centre area.

This leads to identifying who or what is behind this great difference in investment and change.

The answer is that on the one hand we have ‘the town’ and the commercial interests and on the other ‘the university’ and the academic interest. In the middle BCP Council.

The conflict between what has become known as town and gown has been going on for centuries. The earliest recorded dispute dates back to 1354 when an Oxford landlord sold better quality wine to the students than he did to the townsfolk.

In most established university towns, a balance or compromise has been reached but, there are still many coming to terms with the changes.

Universities can bring enormous benefit to a town in terms of medicine, music and the arts. But there is always going to be conflict between commerce and academia.

When the majority of people hear the word Cambridge they initially think ‘university’.

This gives no credence to the vast high-tec industry which the town also supports. I am sure that those who run the university here would love the word Bournemouth to mean academic greatness. That’s not too much of a problem for Cambridge as the technology industry does not have to be linked to the name of the town. Here in Bournemouth where the industry is tourism, the name of the town is inextricably linked to its commercial product.

Other areas of conflict such as geographic locations and what has been termed ‘studentification’ of residential neighbourhoods, can arise and it is for those running the town to avoid or offset the affect of these on the population.

A look at the current situation would suggest the BCP Council has yet to recognise the risks and get the balance right.

Referring to the growth of the university in his town, the chairman of the St Andrews Residents Association recently stated publicly that ‘if it carries on like this we are not going to have a town left’.

DAVID HAWKSWORTH

Branksome Wood Road, Bournemouth