Street drinking and anti-social behaviour have long blighted parts of Weymouth and hurt local businesses, especially in the area around the railway station - but new plans could see the district revamped, with extra help for businesses.

Jeremy Penwell, owner of the Anything & Everything shop on Queen Street, said he had initially been reluctant to pay the compulsory levy to the Weymouth Business Improvement District (BID).

"I was disgruntled," he told the Echo. "It didn't seem fair that I had to pay when we were struggling to get off the ground." Mr Penwell, 44 and a builder as well as a shopkeeper, opened Anything & Everything, which sells the products of house clearances, in May last year, and has secured a three-year rate relief from the borough council.

"People are frightened by the drinking and anti-social behaviour that goes on around the station," he said, "There is a lot of disgruntlement. This area needs some help."

Jason Williams, manager of the Adult Store on the corner of Ranelagh Road, concurred. "We're too small to be part of BID, but we also think there needs to be changes around here," he said, adding that he had drawn up an artist's impression for a proposed redevelopment of the station area, and was also planning to install CCTV cameras pointing towards the station to aid police efforts against crime and bad behaviour.

Mr Penwell, meanwhile, added that he felt there had been a 'lack of transparency' in how the BID's levy funds had been spent.

But after meeting with BID chief operations officer Claudia Moore, he was sunnier about his and the area's prospects.

"Trade is always hard in January and February, and we've been feeling the pinch," he said. "But it looks like there could be a lot of changes coming, like physical improvements to the street scene and more efforts to attract visitors to the area."

Mrs Moore meanwhile noted the station area's problems.

"I've talked to quite a lot of people around the area, and they've all been having trouble with anti-social behaviour," she said.

She listed the potential measures that could be taken to address the ongoing issues; these include uniformed officers employed by the council to maintain a constant presence in the area to deter unwanted behaviour, rangers employed by BID and a real-time reporting system for business owners to signal any problems.

She noted, however, that any development of the area in front of the station would need the co-operation of the rail authorities which own the property.

Mrs Moore also detailed a plan to divide Weymouth into four 'quadrants', each receiving a separate focus and separate spending. They would provisionally be the Swannery quadrant including the station, the Village quadrant, the Seafront quadrant and the Harbourside quadrant; the town centre and the holiday district including Melcombe Regis would be separate.

She stressed, however, that all these proposals were dependent on BID receiving backing for a second five-year term in an upcoming ballot of levy payers, and could therefore not begin until the second half of this year.