A council committee has refused to loan Weymouth BID thousands of pounds after concerns that it would be "gambling with taxpayers’ money".

The BID applied to Weymouth and Portland Borough Council for an interest free loan of £10,000 to fund a re-ballot for mid-2018, in the hopes of delivering another five-year term from September.

During a heated discussion of the council’s management committee yesterday, some councillors strongly opposed the idea with a resounding view that the BID “should have prepared” a suitable business plan with money for a re-ballot included.

Five councillors voted against the motion, with three abstaining and two voting in favour.

Cllr Francis Drake said: “It is a private company. 

"You are asking us to gamble with taxpayers’ money. There’s no guarantee they are going to get a yes vote. If it’s a no vote that’s £10k out the window.

"They talk about what they would use the money for if they got a no vote, such as redundancy fees and (shutting down) the offices.

"The redundancy has been sorted as the BID manager left. Most of the staff are volunteers or on short term contracts. There’s no redundancy to pay out.”

The terms of loan would have required the BID to repay the amount in full over three months at the start of the new period, but only if it was successful in the ballot. 

Cllr Ray Nowak said: “I was happy to support the BID to start up five years ago. 

"I’m not so sure now that I could be persuaded that we should be bank rolling the BID. We are not a money tree.

"It is not our job to say yes to this but say no to other organisations."

However, Cllr James Farquharson, borough council spokesman for economic development, urged councillors to agree to the loan.

He said: “If they are successful then that unlocks £1.5million investment into the town centre."

Cllr Alison Reed also supported the idea, saying the council was not in a position to provide the same services as the BID if it no longer existed. 

She said: "I feel it's a very important part of supporting the town centre and bringing the footfall up."

A review of Weymouth BID was carried out on behalf of the scrutiny and performance committee in November.

It claims that there is a "general level of support" for the group despite a survey of 52 BID levy payers revealing almost 50 per cent 'strongly disagree' that the BID has achieved what they expected it to.