Voices is the Dorset Echo's weekly youth page - written for young people by young people.

Weymouth needs to look up to its big brother Bournemouth and imitate its success in maintaining its beach.

The council are squandering an opportunity that shrinks each year to develop the beach and keep people coming back; they must act fast.

Weymouth has fallen off the radar from being Britain’s best beach in 2017 and no matter how loud locals and tourists alike shout valid criticism from the rooftops, it’s not being heard.

The proof of the complaints being unheard is Cllr Kosior’s insufficient response to aforementioned criticism.

He said: “TripAdvisor reviews are always subjective.”

Indeed they are subjective, they are the opinions and observations of vocal locals and attentive tourists alike.

Calling the outcry ‘subjective’ is a poor dismissal of legitimate criticism and shrugs off the consensus that something needs to be done. A lick of new paint simply won’t cut it (although that would be a start.)

If the council values our prized tourism industry, they need to evaluate these deep-rooted problems in Weymouth and start acting fast.

I have eavesdropped conversations and read letters of tourists vowing never to return to Weymouth for these issues.

Those vows were not empty threats.

By Oliver Streather-Paul