A WEYMOUTH town councillor is on a mission to change the lives of the community - one basketball game at a time.

Alex Fuhrmann, councillor for Westham East, is a primary school teacher and basketball enthusiast who set up the Dorset Basketball Association whilst general manager at Weymouth Basketball Club.

The 39-year-old has overseen a huge increase in membership at the club from the tens to the hundreds. The growth in popularity has seen the introduction of a women's team, a tripling in the number of men's teams and increased accessibility for junior members.

Mr Fuhrmann established the association whilst recovering from double shoulder surgery and decided to it was time to form an organisation "to better serve" the community.

He said: “Particularly with our juniors, we really want them to know that basketball is a way that you can broaden your aspirations and experiences of the world. We want our young people to develop the skills that can get them to university or help them take that next step in life. Basketball can carry them across borders, and across class-divisions, stuff like that.

“We’ve tried to do that for our adult players, as well. Local league basketball isn’t the place where basketball goes to die. We want them to feel valued in what they’re doing week-in-week-out. We’ve tried to flip that narrative and say this is where basketball begins.”