AN illustrious past is no guarantee of future certainty or indeed any kind of future, as we found out with the Winter Gardens.

Most people will be more than familiar with the saga of the concert venue and its ultimate demise at the end of a long running and vociferous campaign to save it. It may now be a case of déjà vu all over again with news that a similar campaign could be launched for the Pier Theatre, set to be closed down and turned into an all-weather adventure attraction. The public debate – if there is to be one, before councillors make a decision on change of use, ought to be about more than just the theatre itself and whether its closure will make any difference.

The debate needs to be about where Bournemouth as a seaside town is going.

Big strides have been made in recent years in branding it as a modern, exciting resort – most notably with the hugely successful air festival. Other projects, the Imax for instance have been a costly disaster. On one level, the figures for Pier Theatre usage speak for themselves. It simply isn’t working.

But before we consign it to history and the faded cuttings of a few celebrities, we should be sure the right balance is being struck between modernising Bournemouth as a family friendly destination and preserving its heritage. After all, a climbing wall can be erected on the back of a trailer and if you want a surf wave, how about trying the sea?