A stretch of the Bournemouth Coast Path has been closed for the Conservative Party Conference.
The sloping clifftop path running from the Highcliff Hotel down to Bournemouth Pier will not reopen until late on Wednesday 4 October.
Walkers from the west are advised to go inland at St Michael’s Road and turn right at the main road to reach the bottom of the hill. The pier is to the right of the roundabout in front of the Royal Exeter Hotel.
The path closure is part of the £1.7m security operation to protect the conference which involves as many as 10,000 people present within the exclusion zone as representatives, observers, journalists, media workers, caterers and exhibition stallholders.
Television channels are planning to use the wide clifftop coastpath with its magnificent Poole Bay backdrop for reports and interviews.
“Detailed planning has ensured that Dorset Police is ready for the challenge of preventing terrorism and other threats through vigilance, high visibility patrols and the effective use of intelligence” says Superintendent David Griffith who is co-ordinating Operation Pegasus 2006.
Dorset Police has been joined by colleagues from Hampshire and the Channel Islands.
