COUNCIL chiefs have come under fire for the ‘slapdash’ way they closed off a Weymouth beauty spot which is now at the centre of an access row.

The Friends of Castle Cove Beach, which have been campaigning to get authorities to open up the much-loved spot, have learnt that the decision to close it for safety reasons in 2013 was made at an informal meeting by three council officers who didn’t seek any specialist advice.

It was revealed in a Freedom of Information request the Friends made to Dorset County Council.

The group was told in a response by DCC: “... the decision made in 2013 was made verbally by 2 officers from this authority and 1 officer from Weymouth and Portland Borough Council based on their visual inspection on that day. No formal written record was made of that decision. You are also expecting there to be other specialist reports that simply do not exist as, until now, no other specialists have been asked to undertake inspections of this site by this authority.”

The footpath to the beach from Old Castle Road, which has been used by the public for generations, was closed by DCC in spring 2013 after a mini-landslide. As a result of the closure, the borough council removed the access steps to the beach.

Friends of Castle Cove chairman Steve Elsworth said of the DCC FoI response: “This is an astonishing way to deal with a much-loved community asset. In the past, when footpaths were closed, the process involved scientific reports, formal meetings, agendas and minuted decisions.

“In the case of Castle Cove in 2013, it looks as if three officers went for a stroll and decided to close the beach. They didn’t even take minutes of their decision. There was no risk assessment, no record of alternatives, no consideration of the impact of the decision, and, although the closure order of March 2013 said the footpath was closed ‘for Health and Safety reasons’, no Health and Safety assessment was carried out.

“The closure notice reported that the path was closed ‘due to damage to the footpath... which has blocked the footpath and rendered the footpath unstable’. The footpath has never been “blocked” and has always been passable.

He added: “This is an incredibly slapdash way to deal with a beach that has been in public use for 100 years and has been guaranteed public access by Parliamentary legislation. This is shoddy behaviour.”

No-one from Dorset County Council or the borough council was available for comment.

The borough council has previously said it appreciates that people are keen to see access to the beach.

However replacing the steps would prove ‘fruitless’ according to the council unless the surrounding land is stabilised.

Any scheme to stabilise the land would be ‘uneconomical and unlikely to attract any government funding’.