WEYMOUTH’S Marsh remains ear-marked for recreation use – despite rumours that parts of it may be used for housing.

The reassurance was given to borough councillors on Thursday evening in response to a question from Cllr Andy Blackwood.

Future sporting developments are still being planned for the area, including a new home for the town’s boxing club and a skate park.

Cllr Blackwood, who chairs the borough’s scrutiny and performance committee, asked about the future of the area after reading comments on the Echo website from members of the public who said it might be used for housing.

“There is a high level of cynicism which still feels that the council wants to build on the Marsh – can you confirm that the Marsh masterplan is for leisure, not housing?” he said.

Leisure commissioning manager Tony Hurley said that remained the case and that the area was becoming more popular – with the pool attracting record numbers of new swimmers and plans for the boxing club and skatepark still progressing.

“The plan sets out quite clearly that it will be for leisure,” he said.

Mr Hurley said that he understood the boxing club had recently won additional funding from Sport England and Dorset County Council and would now have to re-submit its planning permission as the previous one had lapsed. He said he could not see anything which would stop that happening.

Mr Hurley said that the bmx/skatepark was also still in the plan although some of that might have to be redesigned to avoid digging too deeply into the ground following the recent problems with the new play area which had to be delayed while the land was checked for contamination and a membrane laid to reduce any future risk.

Work on that project is about to resume.

Mr Hurley said that a developer’s contribution from the Curtis Field housing scheme would be used to fund the skate park and that the project was more than likely to be overseen by the new Weymouth town council which comes into being in April 2019.