CAMPAIGNERS in Dorset look set to launch the South West's largest credit union early in the new year.

Community workers from Weymouth and Portland have been trying to get a credit union off the ground in the town the past three years.

And they have scored a major breakthrough as they prepare to join forces with volunteers running the Dorchester-based Dorset First Dorset Credit Union.

Credit unions are financial co-operatives - run in the community by local trained volunteers - offering savings and loan services.

The Dorset First Dorset Credit Union is hoping to extend its common bond - which regulates the area in which they are allowed to operate - so that in future would-be savers and borrowers from all over Weymouth and Portland and West Dorset will be able to join up.

Bob Kerr, former president of First Dorset said: "We have to get permission from the Registrar of Friendly Societies to extend out common bond. We need to demonstrate how widening the service of the credit union will be of value to the community of Dorset."

Organisers are urging local people who back the move to extend the union to write in letters of support and pledges of interest to Gill Demuth at the Portland Centre in a bid to ensure the union gets the go-ahead. Mr Kerr added: "We started First Dorset in Dorchester in 1999. We now have 335 adult members and 50 juniors.

"Since we have registered we have given out over 145 small loans amounting to some £77,000. We currently have a share balance of £81,000 with £38,000 on loan at the moment.

"The services we can offer make an extraordinary difference to the lives of local people - especially those who are unable to obtain bank accounts. But it is not just a service for the poor - it is a service for everybody. In Ireland 50 per cent of the population are members of credit unions and in America several unions have assets of over $1bn."

The Rev Antony MacRow-Wood, Vicar of St Francis Church, Littlemoor is one of the organisers of the drive to extend credit union services into Weymouth and Portland.

He said: "This latest development is very exciting. In an age when many people don't have access to traditional banking facilities the credit union offers a way local people can access co-operatively run services and avoid the perils of the loan sharks.

"We have already had some training sessions for volunteers and potential collection points for members in Littlemoor and Portland.

"We've already had a lot of interest in the idea of setting up a credit union for Weymouth and Portland."

Anyone who would like to back the campaign to extend the credit union please write to Gill Demuth at the Portland Centre, 74, Fortuneswell, Portland.