Access to a beach near Weymouth has been ‘completely destroyed’ by a landslide, a walker says.

The pebble beach below Redcliff Point - between Bowleaze Cove and Osmington - can usually be reached by a set of steps.

However, following a recent landslide, one walker says that ‘beach access has been completely destroyed.’

As reported, there has been a large number of landslips along the Dorset coast following a very wet winter - followed by a very soggy start to spring.

George Minhinnick, 31, from Weymouth will often visit the beach below Redcliff Point during the busier season and came across the landslide on Easter Monday.

He said: “We tried to go to Redcliff as we like a quieter beach. We walked there from Bowleaze Cove and found that it was inaccessible.”

Mr Minhinnick, who is a primary school teacher at St Osmund's Middle School in Dorchester, added: “The stairs have been completely ripped apart and there is no safe way to get down.

“I really hope that come the summer season that it’s back up and running and that people can get to it.”

The cliffs are made up of soft clay, which is overlaid with harder limestone, and are known to crumble into the sea over the narrow, rock-strewn beach on a regular basis.

A spokesperson for the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) said: “People should be wary of the dangers of the cliffs whether you be below or indeed above and they should stay back from cliff edges, no matter how safe they may appear.”

Another landslide took place nearby recently at Bowleaze Cove.

Local resident Linda Stevenson saw the aftermath and said: "I was walking my daughters' two terriers and we took a trip to Bowleaze. I noticed the landslip and thought I better warn people because a lot of people don’t realise when walking on the top.

"It’s what we expect every year when we have this rain – it’s been like that for years.

"I felt I needed to warn people. Due to the landslip the mud at the bottom of the cliff can be quite sticky and dangerous."

A dramatic cliff fall also took place over the bank holiday weekend at West Bay following adverse weather conditions.

Video footage from a drone captured the moment that tonnes of rock crashed down onto East Beach.

Sam Scriven, geologist at the Jurassic Coast Trust, said: “Cliff falls are a natural part of the process and they have definitely been more frequent over the last five to 10 years or so - there's no question of that.

“Any time there is a new rock fall, it may leave the cliff faces either side of that collapse more fragile and more vulnerable to further falls.”