`Town must reverse this drink trend'

From the Echo, first published Tuesday 14th Oct 2003.

BOURNEMOUTH is lacking in cultural diversity and needs to reverse the trend away from the existing culture of "vertical drinking".

This was the impassioned plea made by Daniel Winch, president of Bournemouth University's Student Union, to members of Bournemouth council's Policy Advisory Group yesterday.

While speaking about Bournemouth's night-time economy, he made the case for more small operators, coffee houses and mixed-use venues, as well as more art exhibitions for young people across the board.

"Bournemouth is a wonderful town but it is lacking a few key elements.

"Students have been driven in to a corner and they have had enough. We have been pigeon-holed with the Friday-night, Saturday- night binge drinkers.

"I would not go out on a Friday night because of the lack of options. There needs to be a large push to encourage small, independent operators for the future of Bournemouth.

"The council says it wants to encourage a friendly atmosphere with mixed age groups but it's never going to be like that if you have a standing drinking culture.

"I would never take my parents out in Bourne-mouth because they would probably see someone vomiting on their shoes or they would bump in to a fight."

Alan Dove, licensee of Bournemouth's Fire Station night club, said: "There are not very many mixed-use venues in Bournemouth. I would like to see somewhere your dad could go and have a sandwich while you have a drink at the same venue."

Pat Marchiori-White, who runs Southbourne School of English and is chairman of the Recognised English Language Schools Associa-tion for Wessex, called for more coffee houses to cater for foreign students from café cultures.

"There are no coffee houses in the town. The cafes and shops close at 5.30pm and there is nothing for youngsters to do," she said.

"Somewhere like the Winter Gardens could provide a marvellous opportunity for younger people by putting on art exhibitions and more concerts could be held at Meyrick Park."

The advisory group agreed to meet on November 10 to discuss these issues.

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