AN ECHO online reader poll has added to the furore around the council takeover of Aunty Vi's cafe as it emerged that one participant voted 188 times in favour of the council's plan.

During the lead-up to Wednesday's council meeting we held an online survey to gather opinions.

Although it is possible for people to vote multiple times, our survey also indicates when the same IP address has been used to do so.

Readers were asked to vote on the below options:

  • The council should allow people to bid for the contract when it expires in March 2021 (105 votes from 67 people)
  • The council should extend Peter Townsend's current lease for a year (281 votes from 211 people)
  • Weymouth Town Council should run the cafe (205 votes from 19 people)

Councillors, community figures and residents have contacted the Echo to voice their anger over the fact that one person voted 188 times.

As a result of the apparent attempt to skew the results we are reporting the number of unique browser votes instead of the total number of votes received.

However Aunty Vi's Cafe licence holder, Peter Townsend, is incensed by the result.

He said: "I'm worried that someone could be that vindictive that they'd go to so much effort. I would like to speak to them face to face and ask why they did it?"

For the full report on Wednesday's meeting about the cafe click here.