COUNCILLORS will look into improving the South West Coast Path at West Bexington following fears the storm damaged route is affecting trade and tourism.

A meeting of Dorset County Council's environment overview committee on Monday heard how the winter storms of 2013/2014 covered part of the coast path of Chesil Beach in shingle.

A report told members that the route has always been reasonably challenging but now remains useable with 'increased difficulty'.

Campaigners Ian Jackson and Leceister Cowling presented a petition of 104 signatures asking DCC to work with villagers to ensure the coast path is speedily restored either side of West Bexington for the benefit of walkers, tourists and others accessing the Chesil coast.

Mr Jackson said: “People come to Dorset from all over the world to walk along the Jurassic coast but at the moment they can't.

“The huge amount of shingle from the storms has left the path unwalkable; we know many people that have reached the café on route and had to call a taxi because they could not continue.

“The likeliness of the moving shingle becoming a regular occurrence is unlikely and all we want to do is move it back.

“We have lost one season of tourism and trade and can't afford to lose another.”

Mr Cowling added that walking the path for many older people now means distress, tears and dehydration.

He said: “Last summer saw many people turn away from visiting and they may never come back again.

“West Bexington may become strangled to death by red tape; environment regulations are important but never important enough to kill communities.”

Peter Moore, head of environment, explained that while the desire to restore the path to its former condition is understandable, the dynamic natural processes would in reality make this very difficult to achieve and even harder to sustain long-term.

He added: “Future storms are likely to deposit shingle back on top of any cleared area, and if a precedent is set now by removing it, the costs of repeating the operation would escalate over time.”

Cllr Ronald Coatsworth said a great problem would be the 'enormous' costings of the project and questioned how much these would be.

Mr Moore said these were 'very substantial' and in excess of the council's current allocated budget.

Members were told a benchmark figure for the work could be up to £100,000.

There was also mention of a boardwalk for the walkway, which was described as a 'Rolls Royce comparison' by Cllr Richard Biggs.

Cllr Paul Kimber said the county council should work in partnership with Natural England to solve the problem, as West Bexington didn't have the 'benefit of the Environment Agency working with them' after the storm damage lashed the county.

Cllr Mervyn Jeffery questioned how much the county council should interfere with nature and Cllr Hilary Cox added that people expect 'some challenge' with the coast path but do not expect it to be unnecessarily difficult.

Councillors agreed unanimously to work with the community and Natural England exploring the options to improve the situation of the South West Coast Path.