A
recovery operation has been launched after council pontoons collapsed in Weymouth
Harbour.

Around
50 metres of pontoons in the inner harbour, near Cosens Quay, gave way on Monday
evening and fishermen worked frantically to save around 16 boats
from being dragged underwater.

Andy
Alcock, of the Weymouth and Portland Fishermen’s and Licensed Boatmen’s
Association, said boat owners are calling for urgent action to replace the
missing metres of pontoons before the harbour gets busier.

He
said: ‘At the moment there are sufficient vacant berths to put all the boats on
but that’s only because a lot of people have their boats out the water for
winter lay ups, that will soon change.

‘Around
16 to 17 boats have been reallocated.’

A
Weymouth and Portland Borough Council spokesman said improvement works to
the pontoons had been scheduled for the beginning of May but this would now be
brought forward.

Dominic
Lonsdale, Vice Chairman of Weymouth Harbour board, said: ‘We are grateful for
the input from harbour users with the incident that occurred on Monday evening.

‘Work
is ongoing to secure the pontoons with a section of around 40 metres being
removed as a short term measure.

‘Works
to improve this section of the pontoons has been planned for some time and we
were recently awarded a grant of £42,000 from the European Fisheries Fund
towards the cost of this.

‘This
project was due to begin in 10 weeks time but following the incident last night
we are in discussions with the nominated contractor to see if this can be
brought forward.

‘We
are also referring the incident to our insurers.’