TOURISTS and hoteliers are pleading: “Please don’t turn out the lights.”

Council chiefs have been showing off new lighting designs for Weymouth seafront after announcing that the replacement of the current lights was one of the projects they want to rekindle from the regeneration programme.

Visitors and tourism workers have been in the dark over the future of the long-standing coloured bulbs since the government cut a £6.6million grant to revamp The Esplanade last year.

And though the scheme is being billed as a positive step for the seafront many see the lights as a traditional welcome that visitors expect.

Linda Thorne, owner of the Boaters Guest House on The Esplanade, said: “If they are trying to keep the seafront traditional and bring families, the lights are all part of that as they like to stroll along the front in the evening “What else do they want to do to kill this town off?”

She added: “It depends what they are going to replace them with, but if they could keep the ones they have then why waste money?”

Gordon Standish, owner of the Beaufort Guest House on the Esplanade, said: “The lights are right at the front line of what the tourists experience and a part of the seafront.

“And it’s not like Blackpool with miles of illuminations to pay for.

“It needs to look like a seaside resort and any regeneration should add to what we’ve got not take away.”