PUB landlord Neil ‘Chaz’ Charlton has defended empty property owners who are left with ‘no choice’ in these tough economic times.

The Clifton Hotel owner, who is also a Portland Town Councillor, said he had been trying to sell the Masons and Mariners hotel in Victoria Square for the past year.

He said: “As a business person I need some help.

“We’re in a major recession. I want to do something different with the building because it wasn’t working as it was.

“The borough council want it to stay as it is, it’s been up for sale for a year but no one wants to run it as it was before.

“I’ve put a couple of applications in to try and turn it into a couple of apartments and a bistro restaurant but they don’t want to know, there’s no compromise, nothing.

“Then they carry on and give the go-ahead for a Lidl store and a load of shops on a floodplain area.

“Welcome to the real world.”

Nigel Dowsett, of Dowsett Motors, said he ‘quite agreed’ that eyesores should be dealt with but that he had no power over his former car sales site on the island, which had left him £250,000 out of pocket.

He said: “We sold the garage three years ago to a development company and we then rented it back for two years.

“We only got half of the money up front and the company went into administration two weeks before they were due to give payment. I’m owed a quarter of a million pounds.

“We were then kicked off the site by the Royal Bank of Scotland, I’ve no idea who it belongs to now.

“The Royal Bank of Scotland is marketing it with BNP Paribas Real Estate. I can’t do anything about it.

“I’ve complained that my name’s still on there but they won’t take it away.”

A spokesman for BNP Paribas Real Estate, which is selling the former Dowsetts site, said: “The site undoubtedly offers opportunities for redevelopment and we have been in discussions with several end users regarding possible options for it.

“Any redevelopment will have to adhere to the uses prescribed by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

“The site is currently restricted to use for employment purposes and therefore any future purchaser will have to use it as business premises.

“Nevertheless we anticipate that a purchaser will address the condition of the existing building.”