BOURNEMOUTH has a chance to change itself for the better after 25 years without direction, says nightclub ent-repreneur Richard Carr.

He was speaking to the Echo at the second workshop into the future of the town’s night-time economy.

Mr Carr, currently a nightclub consultant for venues like V and Viper Lounge, has been running bars and restaurants in the town for 30 years.

He said: “I’m very pleased they are doing this review. We have assets in Bournemouth that are not being used and the council stifles arts like street theatre.

“We’re also not getting the ‘creative destruction’, which brings in new ideas because you’re not allowed to try anything new, so the town is stagnating. The night-time trade is very difficult for everyone at the moment.

“However, as I’ve said for 25 years we have a huge asset in the town’s setting that unfortunately, it seems to me, is like a shop without clothes.

“We need to give it some direction.

“What Bournemouth needs is for one of these big developments like the Winter Gardens to come through.

“Once we’ve got it, we’ve got to make sure it’s attracting families and children.”

The workshop was held this week at Durley Dean Hotel on the West Cliff and brought together students, councillors, police, bar owners and academics.

John Shipp, the council’s night-time economy manager, said it was important that decisions involved a wide range of people.

Bournemouth council commissioned consultant Feria Urbanism to look into how it should look and feel in the evenings and night-times.

NEW WAYS OF THINKING

Richard Eastham, the head of Feria Urbanism, suggested new ways of thinking about Bournemouth’s town centre at night. A few included:

• Should we complain about skateboards using Bournemouth Square at night if there’s nothing else going on?

• Removing the bars’ adverts – and police warning signs about drinking. Do they just reinforce the message this is a place where people misbehave?

• Replacing normal street lamps with spot lights and unusual lighting, and using that lighting to link up the pathways through the town.

• Projecting images on buildings at The Lansdowne that also serve to direct visitors arriving by train towards the town centre.

• Turning the roundabout on Old Christchurch Road at Horseshoe Common into a public space.

• Encouraging hotels backing on to the west side of the Lower Gardens to make better use of that space.

LOCATIONS IDENTIFIED

The review has identified three major locations. The Triangle – well developed, with a good mix of attractions (for example Flirt Cafe serves coffee until midnight) but the area was not well linked to the Square.

Pier Approach – a great location that was underused at night and is underperforming to its potential. Horseshoe Common – a ‘tatty’ area with ‘intense’ bars that gave rise to some of the negative perceptions of Bournemouth.

The roundabout, surrounded by old buildings, was said to be a public space ‘waiting to happen’.