A ONE-OFF payment of £300,000 will be made to help support Weymouth Harbour in the wake of Condor Ferries leaving.

Members of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s management committee agreed to the recommendation on Tuesday morning.

Money will come from the Harbour Income Reserve budget, which is managed by the Harbour Board.

Councillors, however, decided against an additional payment of £343,727 and have asked for a revised 2015/16 Harbour Revenue Budget to come back to the committee for when they next meet.

Reserves will not be available after 2015/16 to make up any budget shortfall.

Speaking during the meeting, Cllr Colin Huckle, briefholder for finance and assets, said the Harbour Board had a number of options.

He said: “They need to look at reducing that £343,000 and one of the ways is to accept we are no longer a ferry port.”

Condor operations will end from March, reducing the harbour’s income by around £750,000.

The company is switching operations to Poole to launch a new and larger fast-ferry.

Cllr Ian Bruce suggested profitable ports operated more ferry services throughout the day.

He said: “They don’t operate a single ship once or twice a day. There are several vehicles at normal times going in and out. We either have to say to ourselves we have the ambition to go off and run a ferry port like that or we have to bite the bullet.”

Cllr Mike Byatt, chair of the management committee, said it was important for the committee to ‘think corporately’ about the best way to utilise the harbour and peninsula.

Cllr Mike Goodman said: “We need to be very firm with Condor. If they want to retain their call centre here, we can allocate them space and charge them rent accordingly. We have got to move quickly.”

Cllr Ray Nowak said: “We do need to be careful about any leasing of property on the peninsula. We don’t want to tie our hands by having a long-term contract.”

Dr Neil Humphries, an independent member of the Harbour Board, said a meeting to discuss potential revisions would be arranged sooner rather than later.

Nevertheless, Dr Humphries said the original report should have been of no surprise to officers.

Speaking to councillors, he said: “The papers were prepared a long time ago. It’s a bit of a shock that this is not acceptable.

“At no time was it suggested that this might not be accepted. I think it’s unforgivable as it puts us in a very bad light.”

Cllr Kate Wheller, who serves as chair of the board, spoke to the Echo after the meeting.

She said: “I was disappointed that the briefholder for finance hadn’t spoken to me and to the harbour master about what he was going to do.”

Cllr Wheller said Cllr Huckle had an opportunity to inform members at a harbour workshop on Monday.

In response, Cllr Huckle said: “The idea of the workshop was to look at where we are and to say we need a way forward.

“The management committee has given them the way forward.”