The Boscombe Spa Village regeneration scheme has won a top national award, celebrating the success of the council’s regeneration goals.
The award was announced by the Local Government Chronicle Awards in recognition of the multimillion-pound redevelopment which includes the restored pier, improved public open space, restored Victorian Gardens, beach pods, restaurants, shops, a surf school and the artificial surf reef.
This is the second national award presented to Bournemouth Council in recent weeks. Boscombe Pier was recently voted the National Piers Society’s ‘Pier of the Year 2010′.
Since completion, the regeneration scheme has created 91 new long term jobs. Visitor numbers have increased by 32 per cent and incidents of anti-social behaviour down 40 per cent.
Leader of the council Stephen MacLoughlin congratulated all involved in the regeneration, saying:
I don’t believe we would have won this award without the support of local entrepreneurs who have believed and invested in the seafront.
Anyone who has been to the pier, gardens, prom or Overstrand in the last six months will have seen the changes and felt the amazing unique vibe that is now Boscombe seafront.
Local businesses in Boscombe Spa have organised a ‘Celebration Day’ to mark the completion of the seafront regeneration. The event will take place on Saturday 24 April, 11am – 4pm, and activities include surf lessons, paddle boarding, kite surfing, beach volleyball, a sandcastle competition and street entertainers.
For more information, call the Bournemouth Seafront Information Centre on 01202 451781.
According to the National Rail conditions of carriage, surfboards are not permitted aboard South West Trains.
Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood has recently raised the issue in Parliament in order to try to lift the blanket ban on surfboards. In the process, he’s discovered that changing the rules and allowing individual train companies to determine their own policy on surfboards is no easy matter.
Speaking last week, he said:
There is a surprising amount of red tape and a worrying number of organisations needed to change something so simple. I have written a rather plain-speaking letter to the Secretary of State asking for him to knock some heads together.
Last year, South West Trains provided funding towards a bus link between the station and the seafront to encourage visitors to the surf reef.
A spokesperson for the Association of Train Operating Companies said they were hoping to get to a position soon where individual train companies could decide their own policies.
