FELIXSTOWE: Bare dirt, patchy grass and no flowers – it’s been another sad summer for some of the seafront’s most used gardens.

Down the road the former North Sea Hotel stands boarded up, old rubbish littering its grounds, and across the road the yacht pond has suffered problems which have prevented its use.

Residents have already complained about benches being removed and visitors having nowhere to sit on the prom and in the gardens.

Campaigner Pat Loveday is today urging community leaders to draw up a project to deal with the neglect and problems in the southern part of the resort, its West End, to improve life for the community.

“When I think back 20 years when we had a thriving seafront, the community using the Herman de Stern every day for all sorts of activities, all the beach huts on the south seafront, it seems an age ago,” said Mrs Loveday.

“This area was bustling and well-looked after – it’s the place the visitors come first. It truly is the seaside.

“I love this area and love the people and wouldn’t want to live in any other part of the town – but this area just gets second-class treatment and no-one seems to care.

“The area is letting Felixstowe down.

“The gardens look absolutely awful and have done all summer.

“There is rubbish at the old North Sea Hotel which we cleaned up months ago and we can’t get anyone to take it away – we wanted it moved before the carnival because it gave such a bad impression.”

A Suffolk Coastal spokesman said the derelict hotel site was being monitored and had been cleared in November last year and this July as part of a free multi-agency project. It would be visited this week.

Because the site is private, the council has to be asked by its owners to clear it, or it has to be such a hazard or nuisance that legally the authority can go on the land, clear it and then recharge the owners for the tidy-up.

Gardens have been left while the new sea defence scheme has been monitored.

“The planting season is October to March so we hope to do something with the gardens during that period, and replace the benches as and when we can, although we are conscious that benches and other similar items of so-called street furniture need to blend in with the same type being used in other parts of the resort,” he said.

? What do you think of the condition of the gardens in Sea Road? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN, or you can e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk