AS public spending budgets are squeezed, and council-tax payers’ money is spent on the surf reef, and the demolition of the ruinous Imax, I am moved to write concerning the declining condition of the general environment in Bournemouth.

Today I walked for 30 minutes along two main roads in the town, and was saddened to see: two brick walls collapsed into front gardens and partially crumbling onto the pavement; several examples of cars parked on forecourts not big enough for a car, thus sticking out onto the pavement.

There were two examples of gravel drives spilling their contents onto the pavement; one street sign missing the name of the street; the empty frame of one roadworks sign propped against a garden wall, obstructing the pavement; and a rotting heap of old clothes dumped on the pavement (that has been there for several days now).

The pavement surface all along the mile and a half I walked is dilapidated and uneven and not terribly safe; litter is everywhere - bottles, cans, wrappers, fly ers; private houses (many divided into flats) have rubbish on the forecourts – very few have gardens because of the need for car parking. This is one stretch of road along which I regularly walk, but many parts of the town are looking as tatty.

What are our councillors going to do about the ugliness of our civic environment?

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