Weymouth could receive a welcome injection of colour as talks get underway to brighten up the town centre with art.

Initial talks have started between Weymouth and Portland Borough councillors and businesses in the town to discuss bringing in pieces commissioned from Dorset artists.

Cllr Richard Kosior, the spokesman for tourism, culture, and harbour, has initiated the talks as part of his bid to ‘clean up the town’ and make it more appealing.

He said: “If you think about what we have at the bottom of the Rodwell Trail and Weymouth peninsula, it would be something along those lines, just something interesting to brighten up the town and get people talking.

“Hopefully we could get local artist involved to design the works and it would be a mix of paintings, sculptures, murals and metal work.”

The talks follow plans and costs drawn up by WPBC last year to bring various art projects into the town as a cultural boost including permanent street art on the Esplanade.

Cllr Kosior has approached a number of retail businesses in the town, particularly those with blank outside walls facing the harbour, to discuss their options.

He said: “We have had initial meetings to see firstly, if they would be interested in funding the project, and if they have the permission to put something on the buildings, or paint them, to look a bit nicer. It’s about making a drab place into a nice place, that’s my mantra.”

With dwindling council budgets, the focus is on looking to external sources for funding but the council is keen that the arts must be supported locally.

As well as talking to businesses it has also been proposed that the council will support community projects by supplying them with modest one-off grants to give them a starting point whilst they seek funding elsewhere.

To this end, WPBC has recently granted the Friends of the Rodwell Trail permission to create a mural to transform the Wyke Road Tunnel on the Rodwell Trail with help from the community.

Cllr Kosior said: “Friends of the trail suggested we should have mural underneath the tunnel. It’s been done before by students for the Olympics, so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again."

“Initial talks have produced a positive outcome, but no official decisions have been made and the project is still in the very early stages.”