Town to lose parking during year-long harbour work

The Pavilion car park is usually busy with beachgoers during the holiday season

One of Weymouth's busiest car parks will partially close for up to a year for repairs to a harbour wall.

Pavilion car park on the Weymouth Peninsula is used by theatregoers and visitors to the town centre, quayside and beach.

The installation of new harbour walls and footpaths during 2025 is part of a wider £10.5m to protect the harbour.

The eastern section of the car park will be used as a works compound but the area nearest the pavilion will remain open.

The project is expected to begin early 2025 and take 10 to 12 months

A consultant's report for the Dorset Council planning application said the harbour walls were in very poor condition with a "significant loss" of the existing steel sheet thickness.

Holes in the steel have allowed infill material to be washed out and, in 2022, this led to a sinkhole on a footpath close to the wall.

New sheeting will have a design life of 75 years and higher walls will protect the peninsula from predicted sea level rises until 21:00, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Responding to the application, Melcombe Regis ward councillor Jon Orrell said: "Repair and improvement of all our sea walls is increasingly urgent due to climate chaos, global heating and sea level rises."

The project is expected to begin early 2025 and take 10 to 12 months.

Comments on the planning application are open until 6 November.