THE international founder of refuges for battered women and children is coming to Weymouth in support of the town’s ‘lifeline’ for domestic violence victims.

Erin Pizzey, who founded the women’s refuge movement in 1971, is lending her support to the campaign to keep the building which until recently housed the Weymouth Women’s Refuge.

Ms Pizzey, 71, will defend the provision in the town at the borough council’s management committee meeting tomorrow morning, which will decide the former refuge building’s future.

She said: “I am horrified that the refuge is closed and glad to be able to help.

“I love Weymouth – I spent a lot of time there as a child.”

In March the committee agreed to waive a decision on the building for six months, pending offers of use for the facility.

Three offers have come forward, a business plan from Bournemouth charity Hope Housing, an expression of interest from a social landlord and an outline plan from the Friends of the Weymouth Refuge.

Councillors will vote on three options: * To sell the building and transfer the assets to the council’s capital programme, which would result in the funds not being allocated for a replacement refuge.

* To grant a new lease to a body prepared to run a domestic violence service.

* To allow the sale of the building with the proceeds ring-fenced to buy a new refuge.

The Friends group is urging the committee to reject option one and to back both options two and three ‘to give a lifeline to this project.’ South Dorset’s Lib-Dem parliamentary spokesman Ros Kayes, who co-authored the bid from the Friends Group with Mary Watson and Councillor Gill Taylor, said: “We are now getting concrete offers and the figures are beginning to add up.

“The borough has historically supported this service since purchasing the building for use as a refuge in the 1990s and now there finally looks as if there’s a potentially viable future use as a refuge.

“It would be shameful for councillors to turn their backs on these proposals when so much has been achieved to make the reopening of the refuge a real possibility.”

Coun Taylor described Ms Pizzey as ‘an impressive speaker’ who regarded the closure of refuges ‘as a retreat into the dark ages.’ She added: “I’ve no idea which way the vote is going to go, so we are really grateful to Erin for coming down. I hope the councillors listen to her.

“In 2008/09 police had 600 callouts in Weymouth and Portland.”