A COUNCIL leader urged fellow councillors to back down on a decision to ban trading on Weymouth Beach be-cause it would prove so unpopular.

In an email obtained by the Echo, new Conservative party leader Mike Goodman urged other Tory members to reconsider their stance before “contempt is heaped on us..if we prevent the sale of chips and ice cream on the beach this summer”.

Coun Goodman urges his party members to ‘back down’ and re-think a management committee decision that prevented Weymouth Beach trader Tony Deadman from selling refreshments from a temporary kiosk.

Mr Goodman said that they may have made the wrong decision not to allow him to trade and floated the idea of adding an urgent item to this week’s management committee to reconsider.

He said: “As I see it the only way we can get out of this situation is to table an urgent item on Tuesday’s management committee and to grant the permission.

“I will not table the idea unless I have a reasonable degree of assurance that it will be agreed.

“I really think any face we lose by backing down now will be nothing compared to the contempt that will be heaped on us if, through our bureaucracy, we prevent the sale of chips and ice cream on the beach this summer.

“This cannot be far from making the national media with their current campaigns of hitting on councils for stupid decisions and waste and would not sit well ahead of the Olympics.

“I am more than happy to front up and confess if we got it wrong or even if we didn’t, but now wish to back down.”

Councillors have said that long-term beach trader Tony Deadman has the wrong type of trading permission to sell refreshments on a temporary basis on Weymouth Beach.

However, following Mr Goodman’s email Tory councillors decided not to table the item for trading permission – leaving holidaymakers currently unable to buy food or drink on the beach.

Since the beginning of the summer season, beachgoers have been left without the option of buying refreshments on the resort’s golden sands while the traditional stripy kiosk huts are replaced. The opening of Mr Deadman’s new permanent dual servery kiosk on Weymouth Beach has been postponed while he is waiting for an upturned boat structure to be completed.

Although Mr Deadman received planning permission for a temporary kiosk, the council’s management committee voted that Mr Deadman couldn’t trade temporarily because he had the wrong type of lease.

Coun Goodman, who recently replaced Geoff Petherick as leader of the Conservative party, said there will be an update on Mr Deadman’s situation at the next management committee meeting in July.

He added: “It does bother me. The democratic process is that if you relax the rules you have to relax the rules for everyone.

“People are in the process of spending a lot of money to comply with the building requirement.

“They would feel let down if you let someone else trade with the old style kiosk.

“Whatever we do we are wrong. We decided we would get it wrong by being right.”

Mr Deadman, who has traded on Weymouth Beach for 25 years, said he is optimistic that he will resume trading soon. He still has no set delivery date for his permanent kiosk. He said: “I believe there’s a glimmer of hope that I may be able to trade soon. I think I will know my fate next month.”