A PUBLISHING blunder has seen a new guide to Dorchester printed with a picture of Weymouth on the front cover.

A Guide to Dorchester 2015 was set to be delivered by the Royal Mail to thousands of homes and businesses in the DT1, DT2 and DT3 postcodes.

The publication was created by the Local Authority Publishing Company and claims to boast ’32 pages packed with local information’.

However, there was a glaring error on the front cover, which depicts a scene of Weymouth Harbour during the town’s annual Seafood Festival.

The publishers say the embarrassing mistake was printed on a ‘draft’ copy of the guide and has been amended before it goes out to ten thousand homes and businesses in February.

Stuart Jury, from County Town Butchers in Dorchester’s Hardye Arcade, advertised in the publication and said he was not happy to see an image of Weymouth rather than Dorchester on the front cover.

He said: “There are hundreds of landmarks in Dorchester and they have put a picture on there of Weymouth Harbour during the Seafood Festival.

“They posted it to me because I advertised with them and sent me an invoice, which I will be very reluctant to pay until this mess has been sorted.”

Mr Jury joked that some people viewing the guide might be surprised to see Dorchester now boasts a harbour.

He added: “I don’t know whether people think it’s the River Frome and they will be able to moor their boats there.”

Mr Jury said he would be contacting some of other companies that had advertised in the guide to make them aware of the error if they are not already.

A spokesman for the Local Authority Publishing Company said: “An advanced ‘draft’ copy of ‘A Guide to Dorchester 2015’ has been sent to only those businesses featuring in the guide. 34 in total.

“We were already aware of a discrepancy on the front cover, and the amended finished copy of A Guide to Dorchester 2015 (Third Annual Edition) has been printed, and will be distributed to over ten thousand residential and business addresses by the Royal Mail, as promised week commencing February 16.”