A WEYMOUTH weather service could be set to go after councillors recommended its closure.

At a meeting of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s scrutiny committee councillors said they would rather close the meteorological service altogether than continue operating it at a cost of £8,300 a year.

Despite future savings achieved by shutting the service down, it was revealed there would still be fees of £3,500 in ‘human resources costs concerned with an employee’, and would cost another £1,500 to dismantle the meteorological equipment unless it is donated to a school.

A service review report on the station presented to the meeting said: “On the basis of the information gathered during the review, there is no evidence to suggest the customers or the community will be adversely affected to any higher degree than others as a result of either a reduction or closure of the service.”

The report also mentioned comments from the Met Office’s climate network manager’s comments, which said in the event of closure they would ‘actively seek a new location either in Weymouth or to the north to fill the gap, as the government requires them to maintain a reasonable density of stations across the UK for climate monitoring’.

Councillors said they had ‘a lot of thanks’ for the station’s weatherman Bob Poots’ years of service.

Mayor Kate Wheller, said she would like to recommend Mr Poots for a Good Citizen’s award due to the substantial work he had done above and beyond his duties to serve the community.

However, other councillors voiced concerns because Mr Poots is classed as a council employee. Speaking after the meeting on the potential closure of the station, Mr Poots said: “The only thing I can say at the moment is that I’m not surprised, it’s not a shock. They have not told me yet and I haven’t seen anybody, but maybe there’s something in the post for me about it.

“The service has been running since 1880 and we had a lovely continuous record, but it’s just one of those things.”

The final decision will be made at a management committee meeting in December. Due to thefts from the station its exact location is not being revealed.