I REFER to the story ‘Quay to the future’ (Echo, March 5).

At Tuesday’s meeting of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s management committee the decision was made to move most WPBC staff and functions to Dorchester.

This is yet another example of the many ad hoc, piecemeal, ill-thought-out decisions made by an administration whose sole focus has for several years been short-term cost-cutting.

There has been no public consultation on this matter, which has even been allowed to sidestep the council’s own scrutiny process.

The reality is that, if the proposed move takes place, almost all WPBC staff and influence will move to West Dorset and there will remain virtually no public presence in Weymouth and Portland.

We do not know how much this move will cost or what the long-term impact will be but what we do know is that the council will lose its foothold in the borough, and the town will lose the consequential economic benefit.

The Labour amendment to defer this momentous decision, until it had been properly costed and scrutinised and until the arrival of the new chief executive, was defeated 6-3.

The new chief will be hamstrung by this shoddy, knee-jerk decision.

However, the Tory-led manage-ment committee seems not to care about this because they lack a long-term strategy and are concerned not with future presence or long-term invest-ment but with cutting deeper and deeper into our town.

Rachel Rogers Labour Councillor for Littlemoor Ward, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council