I read the letter from Ian Roebuck (Pavilion figures grossly inflated, Your Say, October 15) commenting on the article in which I highlighted the growing financial burden to the ratepayers of the Pavilion complex.

Dear me Ian, if you had thought about it you would have realised that as a member of the management committee it is your function to closely monitor the budget on a monthly basis and, in case you need reminding, the figure for the Pavilion is currently £890,811 with an adverse variance of £166,323.

If you had monitored the last two years you would have observed the end of year 2009/10 figure as £807,339 and 2010/11 £798,274, a total of £1,605,613.

I have never heard you attempt to mitigate the losses with the rationale you applied in your letter; rather the stance of the Liberal Democrat group would seem to be the cost is worth bearing for the few patrons that use the facility.

If the council had levied £25 per household per year for five years to pay for the Olympics there would have been an outcry, with the Liberal Democrats leading a populist clamour. Yet for two decades that figure has been levied on every household with no debate – I say that issue needs challenging.

Mr Roebuck talks of ‘free’ use of the Pavilion – need I remind you that if the shopkeepers and residents ask for free parking they are told there is no such thing as free.

In July 2009 a decision was taken to continue Pavilion operations pending future development proposals with an action plan presented to management committee in December 2009 to ensure its future.

Part of the action plan was to engage user groups and individuals who care about the Pavilion and its survival – in two years nothing has been achieved.

I do not seek the demise of the Pavilion complex, I seek an informed debate on its future, I seek answers to two years of inactivity.

There are dedicated people who could make a positive input into the future of the complex who are not being engaged – why?

It would seem that some of the user groups are now priced out of using the complex – why?

In April I attended the management committee and asked for urgent action to be taken on Pavilion budget monitoring.

In October I made the same request. After a 20-minute debate on £1,000 donated to the Waverley paddle steamer nobody except Andy Blackwood wanted to talk about the Pavilion and £890,000 out-turn.

Coun Peter Farrell Weymouth and Portland Borough Council