Shoppers and residents have called for action to be taken over an alarm that has been ringing non-stop inside an empty Weymouth town centre shop for several weeks.
The former USC clothing shop, based in St Mary Street, has been closed for months after the clothing brand departed the unit and later a charity shop moved out.
There has been an alarm ringing constantly inside the unit for around six weeks which can be heard by shoppers walking past.
Dorset Council said it is aware of the noise issue. At the time of writing at the end of last week, the alarm was still going off.
Barry Sampson, 84, said he first noted the noise while shopping in September and hit out at what he describes to be an “alarming lack of response” to fix the issue.
He said: “It must have been going off for at least a month or six weeks.
“USC moved out late last year and then a charity shop went in for two months and then they moved out.
“I wonder why the shop alarm is going off. It must be consuming quite a bit of electricity each day. Something needs to be done about it.”
He added: "It doesn’t give a good impression for St Mary Street when there are closed shops and the alarm could cause problems for other shops.
“If you walk down the street during the daytime, even with the usual noise of people walking and talking, you can hear it. But if you walk down the street during the night, you would hear it much more.”
One shop worker in the area said while the noise is “annoying”, while others said they had got used to the alarm.
She said: “It has been going on for weeks now and we have just learned to live with it.
“It hasn’t affected customers coming into our shop.”
The unit is largely derelict with shelves and store display items still inside.
One shopper said: “I notice this alarm ringing every time I walk past the store. I think a lot of people have just got used to the noise.
“It’s a shame nothing has been done about it.”
A spokeswoman for Dorset Council confirmed the authority was aware of the ringing alarm.
She said: “Our Environmental Protection team are aware of the issues and they are dealing with it.”
The Echo has attempted to contact the owners of the building for comment.
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