A resident has spoken of her frustration as wild campers continue to illegally set up on a west Dorset beach.

She claims the visitors are "fully aware" they are not allowed to camp, but a lack of patrols from enforcement officers means campers will "chance it" as there is a "low chance of being moved on".

The issue of wild campers on Chesil Beach has been raised many times by residents of the village of West Bexington and Dorset councillors have said action needs to be taken.

Previously locals have said they are fed up with the "constant disruption" by the wild campers on Chesil Beach.

The News reported in June how illegal campers had made life 'a nightmare', as local authorities were facing a "constant battle" to remove them.

In 2021, a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) was introduced which made it illegal for visitors to camp on any of the beaches between Burton Bradstock and Abbotsbury.

Earlier this year, plans were devised to try and tackle the problem of wild camping in the area.

A local resident said: "We still have no patrols coming on the weekends when we have the biggest of the issues and Dorset Council still do not have sufficient resources in place to deal with the ongoing issues.

"The people camping here are fully aware of the ban but continue to come here as there is such a low risk of being moved on they will chance it.

"Even the enforcement officers here advised there were not the resources to continually enforce it as their main priority was Weymouth.

"We only really need enforcement on weekends here it's not like we are asking for a lot."

In June, Dorset Council recruited two CSAS Accredited Patrol Officers to join the Community Safety Team who patrol Weymouth for anti-social behaviour.

The team cover around 20 locations which suffer from anti-social behaviour.

They work in partnership with Dorset Police who were called on two separate occasions to West Bexington in relation to PSPO breaches.

A spokesperson for Dorset Council said: "Working in partnership is the only effective way of dealing with anti-social behaviour and the Community Safety Team would not be able to deal with the significant number of issues across the Dorset Council area without the support of partner agencies, including Dorset Police.

"The council has also invested a significant amount of money in additional target hardening at West Bexington, including the installation of additional signage and a bespoke CCTV camera which is the only camera of its type installed in the Dorset Council area.

"The council has also recently replaced the camera after it was stolen. The Community Safety Team regularly check the status of the beach and relay any significant concerns to the CSAS Patrol Team Supervisor for consideration when formulating the deployment tasking."