Who are Duke of Cornwall Weymouth complainants

READ MORE: 'Weymouth's Duke of Cornwall may lose licence due to complaint'

Respect Weymouth is, apparently, a local residents group. However, in any mention of the group, including in your publication in recent years, there are never any named individuals who are prepared to speak on its behalf. Therefore, it's impossible to tell if the voice this organisation has represents a clear group of local residents or one person's voice.

Secondly, the "Duke of Cornwall" issue raises the question of the "evening economy". Weymouth, like a number of other coastal towns, relies on its hospitality and entertainments sector to form part of its offering to people looking for somewhere to visit. It would be interesting to fully understand whether this, and other licence challenges, emanate from long term central residents of Weymouth or people who have moved in recently expecting the centre to be a genteel old world coastal town like, for instance, Whitstable. Weymouth, in my view, cannot afford a "dialling down" of its offering, of which the "Duke of Cornwall" is a distinct part in the access it affords to local musicians to play and varied live music to take place.

I fully respect that residents nearby should not have their own space abused by evening revellers and that there can be issues regarding volume late into the night. At the same time, Weymouth doesn't not have an influx of medium or large scale employers appearing to bolster the local economy. As such, Weymouth's evening economy forms a part of its attraction to visitors, which it badly needs, and also provides employment to locals.

I hope the "Duke of Cornwall" licence issue can be resolved realistically without revocation or closure and that, perhaps, "Respect Weymouth" will have the courage of their convictions and identify themselves properly so the true extent of their representation of the local community can be fully understood.

Lee Cornell

Weymouth