A BUSINESS that just celebrated its first anniversary has hit out at the state of a neighbouring car park.

Todd and Louise Moffat, pictured inset below, opened up the Taste cafe at the Chesil Beach Centre just over 12 months ago.

Work has just started again to resurface the car park at the centre but they had become infuriated at the ‘dangerous’ state it was left in despite regular pleas with council officials, claiming it hampered their efforts to establish a successful business.

Mr Moffat said that in wet weather many of the car parking spaces had been inaccessible and various potholes made it dangerous for people and could cause damage to vehicles.

He said: “There are only a couple of spots accessible if it rains, and the chances are your car will get damaged, also if you have a mobility issue, it’s very dangerous.

“We receive lots of bad comments regarding the car park.”

Mr Moffat said the car park is ‘periodically patched up’ but the impact of that lasts around three months before it is again in a state of disrepair.

He said he has regularly been in touch with Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and West Dorset District Council parking manager Chris Graves to ask for a permanent solution but says his concerns have largely been ignored.

Mr Moffat added: “I’ve proposed that he could waive the parking charge and let people park at the owner’s risk.”

He said something needed to be done about it urgently as we approach the main tourist season.

Mr Moffat said: “Dorset is about to get into a very busy period for visitors and swift action is needed to rectify the problem.”

Cafe manager Martin Smith said he often had customers coming in and complaining about the car park.

He said: “It’s frustrating for us when we are in here working hard trying to build a business.

“People are coming in with possible damage to their cars and saying it’s an absolute state out there.”

Cllr Christine James, brief holder for transport and infrastructure at Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, said: “The borough council had hoped to repair Chesil Beach car park six weeks ago, however the bad weather severely delayed the works. Work to repair and smooth the car park started on Tuesday and is expected to last around three days.

“The borough council has worked on a number of improvements to the car park over recent months, including landscaping.

“We would like to thank everyone for their patience.”