I KNOW Bournemouth may have had the world's largest deckchair but what has happened to the rest of the beach amenities?

My wife and I visited the town last Thursday and planned to spend the day on the beach at Durley Chine as usual.

By mid-morning there was no sign of any deckchairs, sun loungers or sunshades on the vast expanse of sand.

It was easy to see why – they were all chained and pad-locked or squirreled away in the rear of the beach office.

We managed to get them released and paid £14.50 for a small parasol and two flat non-adjustable sun-loungers which proved to be exceedingly uncomfortable at our advanced years.

Even by mid-afternoon we only counted two other loungers, fur deckchairs and no umbrellas even though the beach was busy.

In previous years they have all sold out by 2pm. Managers must surely have noticed a slight droop-off in takings.

We also noticed that vans, lorries and diggers are now allowed to use the promenade at will, not to mention dozens of cyclist travelling at speed with little consideration for pedestrians including small tots wandering about. And the dogs! The one place I thought all of the foregoing were banned from May until September was Bournemouth beach. What is going on?

JOHN PRESCOTT, Townsend Road, Swindon