LASER columns on Weymouth seafront may be staying where they are – because of the cost of taking them down.

Seafront resident Ken Whatley says the beams from the columns are now so pathetic that they barely reach the sea. They were installed in 2012 for the Olympics as part of a £450,000 seafront regeneration scheme.

Mr Whatley asked borough councillors at its final management committee on Tuesday what would be happening to the laser columns.

The council had been told at a meeting last year that the devices were coming to the end of their working life but decided that the lasers would not be replaced.

It is understood that neither the new Weymouth Town Council nor the new Dorset Council has any money specifically allocated in their budgets to remove the lasers or to meet the estimated £85,000 cost of replacing the laser units within the columns.

Mr Whatley was told he would get a written reply to his question once a definitive answer was found.

They replaced the strings of coloured ‘fairy lights’, which will not be returning to the Esplanade now the borough council has agreed a new lighting scheme which involves programmable lights on columns along the seafront.

Those lighting columns were due to be installed by Easter but that has been delayed after the council had trouble finding a contractor to carry out the work. It has still not been confirmed when it will start.

Costing around £200,000 in total it was expected that installation work could be started towards the end of January with the new lights up and working by the end of this month.

A £157,000 grant in Government funding to pay for the new lights was offered through the Dorset Coastal Forum.

The cost of maintenance and running the lights over their expected 20-year lifespan has been estimated at £56,500.