THERE is “very little hope” of what was once heralded as a “feather in Bournemouth’s cap” being open to the public, according to a town centre councillor.

But the owner of Café Obscura in The Square says work to reopen the camera obscura on its first floor is ongoing.

Speaking at a residents’ meeting, former council leader Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin, when asked by a resident if public access would be ever be available to the camera, said: “We, the council, tried to take legal action against the operator to force him to make camera obscura available to the public.

“Unfortunately he has managed to avoid doing that and there is no change. We continue to pursue it, but there is very little hope of it being opened on a regular basis to the public,” he said.

Operating the camera is a condition of the £250,000 café’s 50-year lease, and when it opened in 2000 the then town centre manager Brigid Carroll called it “a feather in Bournemouth’s cap”.

The camera was supposed to give a panoramic view of the gardens, down to the sea, but has rarely been open to the public. The upper part of the building, where the camera is situated, used to seat diners.

But owner Grant Rayner told the Daily Echo the camera was still in his plans.

“We had a whole load of problems to do with the camera and the actual mechanism at the very top. We’ve still got further work to do and it’s the intention that it will get back to forming part of the premises,” he said.

Mr Rayner added that work would continue over the winter and new audio-visual aspects were also being looked at.

Tony Williams, council execu-tive director for environment and economic services, said: “We have reviewed our position regarding the camera and we are currently working with the owner to improve the facility and so at this time we feel that it would not be appropriate to take any legal action regarding the lease arrangements.”