A LOCAL legend is being resurrected for this year’s Weymouth Carnival.

Craftspeople who have signed up to a new carnival skills class at Weymouth College are making a giant replica of the Chesil Beach Monster known as Veasta which will be paraded through the town in August.

It’s all part of a drive to create a new and inspirational float-free carnival procession with a distinctive local signature, drawing on the area’s history and unique selling points.

It will lead up to 2012 when it is hoped Weymouth will be one of five places in the UK to host a major festival of arts and culture.

To aid this effort, a bid is being made for £300,000 worth of Big Lottery Fund money to run carnival workshops in the community from next year onwards.

The carnival will also have an input in the curriculum as it will form part of the Creative and Media Diploma being taught at the four secondary schools in Weymouth and Portland.

Borough arts development officer Alan Rogers, who is working with organisers on the procession, said: “The aspiration is that Weymouth will host a regional event showcasing all south west carnivals in the period between the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. That’s quite a journey from where we are now so we must take a number of small steps first.

“This year I’ve invited troops from carnivals in the south west to join our parade.

“The idea is to broaden our outlook and see what other places are doing.”

Mr Rogers added that people who have enrolled on the carnival skills course will also make a contribution.

The group invited Martin Ball to make a presentation about Veasta to give them inspiration.

Mr Ball, from Weymouth, embarked on a quest for information after claiming to have seen the monster in 1995.

He found there had been various sightings of the creature, described as a half-fish half-giant seahorse, throughout the ages.

Mr Rogers said: “With the departure of the floats due to rising insurance costs and an effort to create a green procession we are trying to inspire people to think about all the things they can do without the aid of lorries.

“Young people are at the heart of that. Without them carnival will die a natural death.

“The emphasis is to try and develop a distinctive carnival so that it’s not Trinidad or Rio but a carnival with a Weymouth and Portland feel.”