CALLS have been made for the council to realise the Weymouth Pavilion is 'not a white elephant' and safeguard it in the town masterplan after it was revealed ticket sales are up 40 per cent in a year.

The masterplan involves developing 1,000 new homes and in excess of 2,700 jobs across five sites.

Sites include the Pavilion peninsula, the harbourside, town centre shopping area, Esplanade and the area around the train station.

A hotel, park and ride site, new housing schemes, improved leisure facilities, public squares, and a new theatre are all envisaged in the plan which aims to drive economic growth.

The masterplan’s supplementary document told councillors: “Policy TO4 in the previous adopted local plan in 2005 allowed for the redevelopment of the Pavilion and ferry terminal site for tourism and leisure uses, but the policy specified the ‘retention’ of the ‘existing Pavilion uses’.

“The new Local Plan is less prescriptive.

“Policy WEY6 for the ferry peninsula site does not require the retention of the theatre, but accompanying text states that ‘a range of solutions that would ensure the future of a thriving theatre for Weymouth and Portland will need to be considered.’”

Speaking at the meeting’s public forum, Mick Burt of the Friends of Weymouth Pavilion urged the borough council to keep the Pavilion ‘as it is’.

He added: “I fear we will end up with a theatre a third of the size of the current pavilion; this will mean we will not be able to attract as many visitors to the town.

“I would urge the borough council to keep the pavilion where it is.

“The pavilion provides financial viability and is very successful; any replacement would need to be a similar size.”

Mr Burt was reassured by Cllr Ian Bruce that the Pavilion theatre ‘would not be knocked down’.

Cllr Bruce said: “There really is no possible economic way of knocking down the town’s theatre.

“People need to stop obsessing about what is written on planning documents; we will discuss what’s viable and keep to plan.

“There is no money to build a theatre somewhere else, and we are not going to knock down the theatre.

“This does depend on the theatre being a thriving business however. We need to develop funding to support the theatre.”

The theatre is on track to have sold 90,000 tickets, worth £1.3m this year- and increase of 40 per cent.

The Friends have called upon the council to realise the venue is not a 'white elephant' and recognise that it has become a success since being taken over by a community interest company.

Former borough mayor and president of the Friends, Alderman Peter Randall, said: "[Since being taken over by the CIC] We have had sell-out shows – and when did that last happen?

"During the year we have had 11 weddings, with some couples taking their vows on stage.

"There are 10 more booked for 2016 and some for 2017 with many enquiries still coming in.

"The Pavilion is not a white elephant and the borough should be extremely proud of what has been achieved."