PART of a popular Internet website provided by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council is set to be closed after a register of councillors' interests appeared on it.

The council is considering axing its message board because it says a series of 'unsuitable' and 'irresponsible' articles have appeared on it criticising the borough council and local services.

Protesters frustrated by a recent borough council decision not to publish the list on their website - instead allowing the public to browse it at the council offices at North Quay - posted details about councillors' backgrounds on the forum.

The Weyboard forum, which gives people the chance to debate local issues and is used by many visitors to gain information about the area, was temporarily shut a couple of months ago following a string of abusive messages.

Now the council has said it has had enough and is set to shut it for good.

Peter Gilmour, the council's publicity officer, said the forum was originally set up to provide information for people visiting the area.

"The board has proved very beneficial to lots of people since it was set up but when these messages started appearing a couple of months ago we began to receive complaints telling us that we shouldn't be using public money to allow abusive messages to appear," he said.

He added: "Weymouth and Portland is not unique in this situation and unfortunately unless we had someone monitoring it 24 hours a day there isn't a great deal we can do. We've been considering taking it down for the past few months and because of the unsuitable messages by a few irresponsible individuals that looks like what will probably happen."

Mr Gilmour added that the messages deemed unsuitable had now been wiped off.

Borough councillor Paul Kimber said the job of councillors is to act as public servants so he would not be worried if the register was on the Internet.

He said: "I wouldn't have a problem if the register is, or was, on the Internet because I have nothing to hide. There is a public committee dealing with councillors' interests so the decision was probably taken because it is that committee's job to scrutinise."