A NEW scheme has been launched in Weymouth town centre to try to cut crime and spruce up the high street.

Called the “shopwrapping project”, empty retail premises in the town will have their shop windows “wrapped” with posters and colourful designs over the coming months.

It has been organised by the Weymouth Business Improvement District (BID), the Weymouth and Portland Chamber of Commerce, (WPCC), Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

The project has been funded by all four partners, who hope the new designs will deter crimes such as vandalism and will also help entice new businesses into the town, as potential businesses will be able to see what the shops look like with items in the window, as opposed to an empty premises.

As part of the “shop wrapping”, posters will also be put up on the walls of the shops to present how it could look if it was occupied.

Weymouth BID will execute the scheme on behalf of the four partners. Nigel Reed, manager of the BID, said: “This project has been running for some time now between all the partners and now it’s finally being put into place.

“If you put barriers up and make the shops look untidy, it encourages people to cause trouble and to vandalise the premises but by making the place look nicer you discourage that sort of thing.”

He added: “What the posters and designs do is when you look into the shop window, it will show what the shop would look like brightened up, or what a shop layout would look like in there so hopefully it will encourage potential business owners to take more of an interest in the shops.”

Julie Cleaver, president of WPCC, said: “One of the main aims of this is to make Weymouth look more attractive, both for visitors and local residents.

“We are not saying this is the answer to making the high street better, obviously we want to have new shops in there, but this is one way of making it look better as we look for new shops to come in.”