Questions raised over funding of Weymouth Seafood Festival

Fifty thousand pounds of public money to support this weekend’s Weymouth Seafood Festival has been questioned.

Fifty thousand pounds of public money to support this weekend’s Weymouth Seafood Festival has been questioned.

Independent member of Dorset Council’s harbours advisory committee, Mark Roberts, said he would like to see the audited accounts from the commercial operators of the event to see how the money is used.

He said the £50,000 has come from the Weymouth Harbour accounts with the possibility of other payments from Dorset Council to the organisers.

He also questioned the claim that the event would bring millions of pounds into Weymouth over the weekend for the harbourside event.

“I would love to see a breakdown of what millions it brings,” he said… ”As we are giving £50,0000 from the harbour budget have we ensured that a fully audited set of accounts from the Seafood Festival organisers will be provided to this committee for use of public money to see if there is a surplus and what should be done with that surplus?  Should it be returned, or held in an account for a future one (festival)? This is public money that we are funding a commercial operation with,” he said.

Harbours manager Ed Carter said that there was data available on what he described as “the significant amount” the festival brings into the local economy, which he said was around £3million.

He said he would be happy to share the data with committee members, adding that stallholder fees from the weekend would go into the harbour accounts.

Mr Carter said he would have to hold conversations with colleagues about whether or not the accounts could be made available.

Cllr Gary Suttle also questioned the situation: “We are told there are no figures, so how do we know they need the £50,000?,” he asked.

Mr Carter said the £50,000 was the amount the organisers had asked for in negotiations with Dorset Council to bring the festival back to Weymouth and make it a free admission event. He said he had no details about whether there was an additional financial contribution from Dorset Council inaddition to the £50,000 from the harbour budget.