A LAST-DITCH bid to persuade district councillors to underwrite West Bay's desperately needed sea angling jetty will be made today (Thursday).

Campaigners will call on them to commit more cash and pledge more support for the £500,000 scheme when they reconsider regeneration plans for the resort.

Tory controlled West Dorset council's executive committee had approved a "cut price" enhancement scheme for the Bay - with limited support for the jetty.

But 11 Liberal Democrats - two more than the minimum required - signed a motion forcing the plans to be looked at again.

They will go before the council's ad hoc committee today when the Lib Dem protesters - led by Bridport councillors Ros Kayes and Karl Wallace - will make an impassioned plea for much more commitment for the jetty.

Currently the district council has offered to "ring fence" £100,000 towards the project from the resort's £1.25million regeneration budget.

But it insists that first a Community Trust must be set up by people in Bridport to oversee the funding bid and then run the pier.

And Coun Kayes says for minnows like the town council organising a project on that scale may prove too great a challenge.

Today she will call on the ad hoc committee to:  Reallocate the £150,000 now removed from plans for the Mound development to the sea angling jetty fund. With money from other sources, this would put nearly £300,000 in the pot and make it a viable project.

 Agree to work in partnership with the town council and any established trust, sharing the support and expertise of officers so that the project - which requires negotiation and approval from a range of different bodies - gets the full support it needs.

"Bridport town council has three full time employees - West Dorset District Council has 400," she will stress.

"The 2006 local government white paper encourages councils to work in partnership. It is not rocket science to see that only with committed WDDC support can this project go ahead.

"The case we will be putting today is about collaboration not conflict. We know how many people in Bridport support this issue."