A WEYMOUTH Town Council meeting descended into chaos over a report to consider support for a charity which seeks to end violence against women and girls.

An item to consider the council's support for the UK Says No More movement was discussed at a meeting of the full council.

The UK Says No More group says itseeks to 'unite and strengthen a diverse community of members of the public and organisations nationwide to actively take a stand against domestic abuse and sexual violence under one powerful, visual symbol'.

Councillor Gill Taylor put forward an amendment to the proposal, asking for it to be replaced and asked the council to instead promote the work that Dorset Council does to support victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Cllr Taylor said: "I am the vice chair of the Dorset Domestic Abuse Forum.

"I am also the vice-chair of the Dorset Domestic Abuse Welfare Forum.

"I am not happy with this because Dorset Council is one of the best councils in the country, it is an exemplary council for their work on Domestic Abuse.

"They regularly have other councils coming to them for the work that they do to see how we do it because we do such a damn good job at it.

"If you contrast with what is available on Dorset Council website, which is paid for by our residents already, there is a huge amount of support available."

After a discussion, some councillors suggested combining the two support services and allowing the town council to promote both. However, Cllr Taylor argued that supporting UK Says No More was not needed alongside the Dorset Council services.

Councillors voted in favour of the amendment to replace the UK Says No More campaign with the services offered by Dorset Council.

Following that vote, the councillors then voted on a second amendment to combine the two services together.

Cllr Nickinson said: "We voted to support Cllr Taylor's motion, now we are going back again to change it.

"If I voted for the amendment, I don't wish to vote for anything else. I was in favour of the amendment.

"If I vote against this, I don't want to be seen as destroying her amendment."

The combined amendment was then split up once again into two votes, with a vote to include UK Says No More, followed by a vote for Dorset Council services.

Both parts of the amendment were then subsequently approved by councillors, combining them once again.

In total, councillors spent 40 minutes discussing the item and voted three times as the two proposals were separated, combined, separated and then combined again.

Cllr Alex Fuhrmann said: "The delicious irony of this being the night that prospective councillors come and talk to our team and see this discussion, this is taking up far too much time and is not in our remit.

"This has turned into a wonderful, very important discussion, however into a giant virtue signal.

"We should be covering the things we are responsible for, not lining up the next council for more responsibilities.

"I am really not happy about how this has all gone, it is a really big waste of good moral discussion, but of time as well."

Weymouth Town Council agreed to adopt both the amendment and the initial item and will now promote both services through their website and social media.