LEISURE chiefs are crossing their fingers for another three weeks of hot weather in a bid to stave off further damaging spending cuts.

Bournemouth councillors recently voted through a £380,000 package of emergency cuts hitting beach cleaning, tourist information, seafront toilets and play areas - as well as potentially closing the town's aviary.

The council's leisure and tourism department is hoping to rake in money for the rest of the year to avoid having to make another £250,000 in cuts. Its fortunes will depend on continued good weather to encourage the tourists.

Cllr Angela Manton, Liberal Democrat cabinet member for the economy, said trading had been good during the heatwave.

"One would hope that if the income stream is high, then we can look again at the potential cuts and see if we can minimise them, but we can't make promises because the next three weeks will be critical," she said.

Council officers warned in July that the leisure and tourism department was on course for a £630,000 overspend. They reported: "Tight cash-limited budgets over the past few years have given no scope for unrealistic income targets to be corrected."

Income at the Pier amusement arcade was £160,000 short of a £1.19 million target. The Showbar and Pier Approach complex was £101,000 below a £1.48 million target, with its facilities looking "increasingly tired".

The council's premium rate tourist information line had only achieved half its £80,000 income target, with visitors using the internet as a cheaper alternative.

The budget crisis has prompted a political row, with the Liberal Democrats accusing the former Conservative administration of setting an unsustainable budget. The Tories have retorted that the Lib Dems did not suggest an alternative at the time.

Cllr Manton hoped a good tourist season might enable the council to reinstate some of its recent cuts.

"We want to be up front about whatever's going on and we are going to be finding out exactly how, within two months of a new budget, we were £600,000 short," she said.

"What we can't do is keep going back to the council taxpayer and asking them for money."