MEMBERS of a historic fishing club are reeling over new lease arrangements for their headquarters.

Weymouth Angling Society, the oldest club of its kind in the UK, fears it could lose its Commercial Road base if a controversial new rent agreement goes ahead.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council recently approved a 10-year lease after 18 months of negotiations, but management committee members discussed more detailed terms which anglers claim make no sense.

The committee decided to offer the club a three-year lease set at an annual rate of £2,000 - although the market value is five times that sum.

The agreement also allows the council to give six months' notice at any time and a social subsidy of £1,000 will be paid to the anglers for the next two years plus £500 for the third year, since they can only afford to pay £1,000.

But club spokesman Jim Churchouse accused councillors of sending out "mixed messages" about the rental.

He said: "We are alarmed because we were told one thing and now there are yet more proposals in front of us.

"Our trust in the council has been breached by all these mixed messages.

"We have looked at other sites but there is nothing else suitable for us to use."

Councillors agreed that the club has been living in uncertainty over the past 18 months because the matter was not dealt with promptly and members were unable to pay the commercial rate.

Councillor Les Ames said: "We should remember that this club has been in existence for more than 100 years and does a lot for the area."

Councillor Hazel Priest said: "We are in serious danger of losing this club altogether."

But angry angler Dave Pay said outside the meeting: "The rent scheme makes no sense when you try to read it and our agreement that we had worked out with previous council committees now stands for nothing.

"We went from being told that we had a 10-year no-break-clause lease with the rent to be negotiated, to being told we can only have a three-year lease with six months' notice to quit.

"Angling for sport is a historic part of Weymouth life and should be looked after for the future."