WITH reference to Trish Lawrence’s letter in the Echo dated June 12, I wish to correct her figures regarding the petition to save The Palm House.

We received 3,432 signatures in total, with over 2,600 from residents of Weymouth and Portland.

The 100 she refers to was a comment from my previous letter on the number of written responses the council had received during the public consultation on the Town Centre Masterplan.

Our Facebook page received more than 100 comments in the first 24hrs when we announced The Palm House was under threat!

But her central point is correct in that the elected council does not appear to listen to the people, mistakes are made but are never acknowledged, let alone corrected. In our case, we were only given three minutes at the recent full council meeting to present the case to grant a new lease for the Palm House and save this historic building.

That was unfair, undemocratic and disrespectful to the many local people voicing their concerns via the petition. Councillors, of course, are free to waffle on for hours on any given subject at these meetings.

I have heard this is a new, listening council with some fresh, young members and a new professional executive team at the top that will hopefully start to listen to local opinion and act on it where possible.

Actions will speak louder than words and correcting past mistakes will go a long way to restoring faith in them. The energy and passion created through petitions such as ours and others, should be challenged to focus on local issues, benefitting local people and visitors alike that will make this an even more attractive town to live, work and visit.

Nigel Sims-Duff

The Palm House

Weymouth