Stand up for Weymouth!

That's the rallying call from one councillor who is deeply concerned that the town is being stripped of its income-generating assets in a local government shake-up.

County councillor for Westham David Harris is calling on other members who represent Weymouth to make their voice heard at a forthcoming meeting where the budget for the new Dorset Council will be agreed.

Cllr Harris say the new unitary authority will be balancing its budget largely by taking responsibility of nearly all the assets from Weymouth that bring in an income – including car parks, seafront properties and the crematorium.

These generate millions of pounds and are currently under the control of the borough council which is about to be abolished.

Menawhile, Mayor of Portland Charlie Flack said the island had been 'kicked in the teeth' by the way asset trasnfers had been handled. But the new Dorset Council said they are focused on making sure assets are distributed fairly.

Cllr Harris says the new Weymouth Town Council which is being set up will only be left with assets that cost money rather than generate an income. For example, the town council will still have to maintain the beach and promote events to attract tourists.

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Establishing a new town council will provide residents with an opportunity to vote in new councillors and give the town a voice – but under the shake-up it will have little responsibility, he suggests.

He goes on to claim that local members have had little say in the transferring of assets to the bigger authority.

Cllr Harris said behind local government reorganisation were three main principles – to save money by rationalisation; to save money by transforming the way things are done instead of splitting between county and borough, and to delegate downwards so that communities can take responsibility for themselves. So he questioned why was Weymouth losing out.

Cllr Harris said: "It's time to stand up for Weymouth before it is too late.

"People need to contact their borough or county councillors and ask them to attend the Shadow Dorset Council meeting on February 20 and vote against the proposed budget for the unitary council.

"This is because that budget has been balanced by taking nearly all the assets from Weymouth that bring in an income and leaving the town council with most of the assets that cost money to keep up."

He added: "Although I represent 7,500 residents of Weymouth on the county council I was prevented from participating in any of the discussions on asset transfer.

"Once again Weymouth residents, who according to statistics earn less, on average, than anywhere else in the country, let alone the county, are being asked to subsidise all these other residents. If there is enough of a protest it might enable the new town council to appeal against the decisions made with no real consideration of their impact or fairness.

"If we just owned half of our car parks the town portion of our council tax would be almost half of what is proposed, but the unitary council would have to balance its books in a different way, not at our expense. Why should the unitary council take over?"