Vandalism, broken seats and damaged shelters are ruining Weymouth’s family seaside town image, it is claimed.

Several people listed a catalogue of problems during the public section of a Weymouth and Portland Borough Council committee.

One accused the council of adding to the decline by being slow to tackle items such as broken glass in seafront shelters and not replacing missing slats from public benches.

But the council say most of these problems have been rectified.

There were also complaints that while the seafront and town centre had CCTV it was widely known that it was not manned 24-hours a day.

Resident Bob Woodward spoke about several incidents of broken windows and spray paint. He said that if the council could not afford to staff the CCTV 24 hours a day it should consider volunteers.

“People get away with it. They know when it’s not working,” he told members of the borough council’s Management Committee.

Another resident, David Grey, said that a lot was being done to tackle the problems – but claimed the council was slow to publicise what was happening and was working in isolation, not together. He suggested that as a result, the town's image as a family-friendly resort was suffering.

He added that he had lived in seven towns and the anti-social behaviour in Weymouth was the worst he had seen.

“There is a clear dis-connect. Despite the figures showing that anti-social behaviour is going down we all know that a lot of incidents are just not reported…on Saturday there was an abusive gang on bikes in the pedestrian streets, yet they were gone in seconds.

“The public perception is that the abuse is going the wrong way, it’s out of control.”

He said that despite £250 on his council tax  bill for policing there was little evidence that the police had thought about how to tackle the problems.

“They don’t have a strategy. It doesn’t exist…they just have a blue light approach.”

Others complaints included the state of seafront blue bins, some of which were said to be rusting away, and street lights which do not work.

Tourism spokesman Cllr Richard Kosior said all the items mentioned should have been tackled. He agreed that leaving broken windows and other items only tended to increase the problem and lead to further attacks. He promised to pursue problem areas with council staff.

Council leader Cllr Jeff Cant claimed the authority had been making 'giant strides.'

"We are making considerable progress, we are actually making good progress," he said.