“Practical, positive and real” changes are set to be carried out in Weymouth town centre as part of a scheme to regenerate the area.

Council chiefs have agreed to plug £90,000 of reserves into a huge project to improve the condition of buildings, streets and amenities in the heart of the borough.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s management committee unanimously agreed to spend £50,000 on support works to ‘improve the look and feel’ of the town centre, plus £40,000 to fund the salary of a new conservation enforcement officer.

The conservation officer will be tasked with addressing the poor condition of listed and non-listed buildings in the conservation area as highlighted by Historic England.

Cllr James Farquharson, spokesman for economic development, said: “It’s really nice to bring forward this proposal, which is about us doing something practical, positive and real that will make a difference to the town and the people who visit and live in it.”

Support work is due to be carried out in two phases. The first phase involves reinstatement of brick pavements in around 30 locations, removal and replacement of out of date signage, and faded road markings.

In phase two, town centre signage will be removed and replaced with clearer signs ‘to support pedestrian movement across the town centre’. Some areas of the highway in the town centre will be resurfaced.

The decision comes after Weymouth’s conservation area was put on Historic England’s ‘at risk’ register following an assessment last September.

However, some councillors raised concerns over the nature and cost of the scheme.

Cllr Gill Taylor said: “I’m fully on board with £50k to improve the town centre, and I think it is possibly not enough.

“However, I’m not so convinced about spending £40,000 on a new conservation officer. I would like to get the BID and Weymouth Chamber of Commerce involved with improvements to shop fronts. I don’t see this as something which the council should necessarily be doing.”

Cllr Kate Wheller raised the issue of the council’s objection to an elaborate mural painted on the front of Elite Tattoos in Weymouth last year.

Having been given planning permission, the owner was told after the mural was complete to apply for retrospective advertising and listed building consent or it would have to be removed.

Cllr Wheller said: “How can we be said to be supportive if we’re saying, ‘you’ve done a lovely job but you have to paint it back to white’.

“We have to be consistent if we want the look and feel of Weymouth to be innovative, exciting and ambitious, but when someone sticks their head above the parapet we are against it.”