CAMPAIGNERS for a marina at Boscombe are to plead with councillors to give the idea a hearing.

Bournemouth councillors have previously refused to hear a presentation on the scheme from Richard Carr's company Future 3000.

Mr Carr says a marina could be funded by house building at Boscombe's Honeycombe Chine.

Cllr Anne Rey, leader of Bournemouth Borough Council's Independents, is to take a motion to a full council meeting on December 18, requesting that Future 3000 be allowed to present its ideas.

She said many hoteliers were keen to see the marina idea developed. "We're going to see which councillors are visionary enough to just have a look at it and have a presentation," she said.

The council is currently pursuing plans to transform the area into Boscombe Spa Village. It wants to sell part of the chine for housing in order to pay for leisure attractions and an artificial reef.

David Jessup, chairman of Boscombe First Residents Association, recently polled 57 hotels over the issue. Of the 39 which replied, 29 favoured a marina rather than a reef. Another nine wanted both.

Mr Jessup said a reef would "destroy our industry as we know it".

In a letter to Stephen Godsall, the council's director of leisure and tourism, he added: "We have survived for many years on the traditional type of holidaymaker, who yearns for a more sedate holiday, not the alternative, which your office seems intent on forcing on us.

"I am bemused as to the council's refusal to allow Future 3000 the opportunity to make a presentation of their vision for the Boscombe seafront."

But Cllr Brian Tokely, vice-chairman of the council's leisure and tourism committee, said there was a place for a marina in Boscombe. But he said the council had spent years trying to achieve a scheme for Honeycombe Chine and should press ahead with its current plans.

"We desperately need to do something. If we vote for a marina, we'll wait another five to seven years and I think that's wrong," he said.