FAMILIES battling to set up a village green in Weymouth have moved closer to victory after councillors provided a ray of hope.

Residents at Southill have applied to Dorset County Council to register a parcel of land behind the police headquarters off Radipole Lane as a village or town green.

The 'green lung', which falls inside the West Dorset District Council boundary, has been used by local people for more than 20 years as an open space.

But Weymouth and Portland council chiefs are concerned about the village green proposal because part of the land has already been earmarked for employment use in a planning policy blueprint.

Officers urged borough councillors at a management committee meeting to tell Dorset County Council that although the borough has no objections to the village green plan, it would be concerned about the potential loss of an important strategic site for economic development.

But the committee said it would not express its concern about the loss of the land to county colleagues in a show of support for the Southill and Radipole Open Spaces Society, the group which is applying for village green status.

Society spokesman Edward Bond told councillors at the meeting: "It is of considerable concern to the society that the members of the council have not given more backing to the retention of this open area.

"Weymouth continues to grow because it has attracted new industries, including an influx of people from other areas.

"There is a physical limit to such expansion and the close involvement with West Dorset District Council is inevitable. However for both authorities, the retention of an adequate green lung to support a local community such as Southill must still receive a very high priority."

Coun Brian Ellis won backing when he said the officers' recommendation went "too far".

He said the borough should make no representations to the application for village green status and that Dorset County Council should merely be informed of the planning status of the land.

"There is a very good case for retaining this land as open space," added Coun Ellis.

Coun Howard Legg said: "Employment is important but then again so is people's quality of life."