A ROW over Weymouth fishermen’s access to local waters during the Olympic sailing events has been resolved following a meeting.

The Weymouth & Portland Licensed Fishermen’s & Boatmen’s Association demanded a rethink from security bosses after finding out about plans to increase restrictions in Weymouth Bay during this summer’s big event.

A special meeting was held at Weymouth’s council offices for representatives of borough water user groups and the Dorset maritime operations group to try and resolve the situation, which would have put 35 boats out of work for more than two weeks.

Dave Pitman, chairman of the borough’s Licensed Fishermen’s & Boatmen’s Association, said: “It was a good meeting and the commercial fleet and charter fleet are being allowed to carry on fishing.

“There are a few communication issues to be ironed out, such as who people should talk to when they’re going in and out but they’ve admitted they wrote the restrictions without thinking how it would affect the commercial and charter fleet.

“The meeting lasted two-and-a-half hours, it was very good, they listened to us and we listened to them and it all came out tip top.”

The maritime operations group is made up of various agency representatives involved in London 2012 Games security.

Chief Inspector David Dent, of Dorset Police, said: “We’ll continue to work with the local fishing community to minimise disruption to activities.”