That was a jolly good song. *Smiles*

'Folk music got this heavy' for me in 2000, when the licensee of the pub who had agreed to us playing folk music there, received a letter from this very same Weymouth and Portland Borough Council. This threatened them with prosecution and a possible £20,000 fine or six months in prison if they allowed it to continue without them paying them for an additional licence, as their considered the activity automatically made it unsafe.

This after the Licensing Manager visited undercover and left unannounced, had declared this to be a public entertainment and that the participants were more than the permitted number of 'performers'.

Back for a moment to our, and the council's present problems.

Dorset Evening Echo Wednesday 12 February 2003

FAMILIES in Weymouth and Portland are facing a big rise in their council tax bills.

Councillors decided on a 50 per cent increase in the borough's share of council charges despite agreeing to a package of savings worth almost £450,000.

Borough council chiefs have been forced to make radical cuts and introducing a steeper council tax charge to plug a budget shortfall of £1.9 million.

Among the controversial measures announced yesterday were the closure of 11 public toilets around the borough, scrapping the meteorological service, reducing road sweeping, reinstating the increase in harbour pontoon charges and introducing disabled parking charges.

Although few jobs are affected, Weymouth and Portland Unison secretary Chris Moscrop warned of a possible impact on existing staff because some posts have been `frozen.'

After a marathon five-hour debate the management committee came up with savings of £448,700 and consequently recommended a council tax increase of just over 53 per cent to the full council which meets next Thursday (February 20). If agreed, it will mean the cost for a band B property will rise over £50 to £155.30 a year (or £2.98 a week), and the cost for a band D property will increase by just under £70 to £199.67 a year (or £3.84 per week).

These figures represent only the borough council's share of the whole council tax and does not include Dorset County Council and Dorset Police precepts, which make up the lion's share of the total bill. The county is due to fix its figure tomorrow. Finance chiefs expect the overall total bill to increase by about 20 per cent.

Council chief executive Tom Grainger said today: "I'm pleased the committee agreed that it was important to set a balanced budget with no use of reserves to support ongoing spending.

"In order to keep the tax rise to the least possible level even before yesterday's committee the council had made savings of over £1 million."

Management committee chairman, Coun Anne Thomas, said moves had to be made to put the authority on a sound financial footing.

She said after the meeting: "We have faced some very difficult decisions but it is cross-party proposals which will form the committee's budget.

"It's a hung authority so it's important to get everyone to work together to come up with an agreement."

Borough finance spokesman, Coun Kay Wilcox, said: "I'm pleased that the policy and scrutiny committees will be meeting before the full council so that recommendations from here can be looked at in detail and that officers and brief holders can answer questions.

"I hope this approach will be constructive and lead to a consensus."

West Dorset District Council's council tax precept is to increase by 17 per cent.