FEARS are growing for the future of Weymouth port after Condor Ferries sailings were postponed for at least another month.

Condor re-routed its cross-Channel sailings to Poole last week after safety concerns were raised about the structure of the wall where ferries are berthed.

Divers found cracks beneath the water line and the surface of the quay had dropped.

Now Weymouth and Portland Borough Council says emergency repair work costing about £50,000 will be undertaken which means ferries will not return to Weymouth until at least March 28.

Work will begin at the end of next week and take two to three weeks to complete.

This will be followed by a week of monitoring to check the repair has been successful.

Concerns have been raised over why the council is acting now over the state of the harbour walls and whether Condor Ferries will return to Weymouth.

Condor is the port’s major customer and contributes more than £7.7million a year to the Weymouth and Portland economy. The company said it expected to resume operations from Weymouth for summer 2012 ‘as long as all safety concerns had been satisfactorily resolved’.

But Councillor Peter Farrell, chairman of the Harbour Management Board, said: “This is the most serious situation we have faced in the 130 years this has been a ferry port.”

Coun Farrell said that the problem of the harbour walls had been known about for years and claimed the council had done nothing about it.

He added: “The harbour generates £2million a year and up until two years ago £1million was taken straight out to fund other things like the Pavilion.”

He said he was worried that if the council didn’t fix the problem that it could put the future of Condor operating out of Weymouth in question.

Former harbour master, Commander Peter Tambling said there had been lack of investment in the harbour walls for a number of years by the council.

He said: “I’d like to ask the question of where has the money from harbour revenue gone and why hasn’t work already started?”

Borough council environment and sustainability spokesman Ian Roebuck said the repair work being undertaken over the next few weeks would be ‘long term’ and that the council was working closely with Condor to resolve the situation.

He added that work had been done on the walls before but that to revamp the entire harbour would need major external investment and the council was looking into funding options. He said: “I am confident from the information I have that Condor will safely be able to resume sailing by the end of March.”

A spokesman for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council said that there was no indication that the wall repairs were related to the building of the new Weymouth Tower on the other side of the quay.

'Something needs to be done to solve issues'

THE deteriorating harbour was a hot topic at Thursday night’s Weymouth and Portland Borough full council meeting. Discussions were led by Councillor Peter Farrell who criticised his fellow councillors in their dismissal of the damage over the years. He said money had been spent on things such as the Pavilion, which still remained in £750,000 of debt, when a detrimental problem with the cracked harbour had been present for over a decade. He said: “I’m not against the Pavilion, but this is the most important issue.” Former councillor Roger Allen, who used to chair the Harbour Management Board spoke out about his concerns for the harbour. He said: “I’ve got a real concern for the wall and now the issues with Condor Ferries. “I’ve been worried about this for over two years. “Something needs to be done.” Coun Peter Chapman reminded councillors that money could not be spent that was not available.