THE Echo of June 23 carried a brief piece with the title ‘Funds to make the most of our coast’, which gave details of a conference being organised by the Alliance of Coastal Communities, to be held in Brighton on Thursday, June 30.

I quickly discovered from the internet that the purpose of the conference was to share best practice amongst coastal community councils, businesses, voluntary organisations, etc.

This seemed to me to be something that our council would almost certainly want to be be involved in.

To check out that assumption I e-mailed the local councillor who holds the brief for tourism, culture and harbour with the following question: “Are you or any other councillors/council officers attending the conference?

“If so, will it be possible to obtain a report on the conference and how our borough can take forwards any ideas from it?”

On July 1 – the day after the conference took place – I received this reply: “Thank you for your email.

“I have chatted with the officers and unfortunately no one will be attending and we have no way of receiving any notes”.

Currently, Weymouth faces enormous challenges in respect of tourism, business development, housing, social issues, etc.

So, just how bad do things have to get before our council – both officers and elected representatives – wake up to the need to join with other coastal communities in developing a cohesive strategy and policy, for which central government is already offering developmental funding?

Perhaps the Chief Executive of Weymouth and West Dorset Councils would care to respond to my concerns?

Tom Hopkins Greenhill