VISITORS to Lyme Regis seafront could enjoy free Wi-Fi next year.

Lyme Regis Town Council is currently looking at plans to offer complimentary internet access to tourists in the town.

The town council enjoys a high-speed connection at its offices in Church Street, and hopes a new line could be established to offer Wi-Fi to visitors on the seafront.

If the proposals go ahead the signal – coming from a line established at the Jubilee Pavilion – could cover an area running from the Cobb Gate car park to the Cobb, including Marine Parade, the beach and Langmoor and Lister Gardens.

Mark Green, deputy town clerk, said: "We have a fast connection, up to about 80 mbps coming into our offices, and to be honest we don't generally need to use all of that bandwidth.

"Mobile phone signals on certain networks are a bit patchy in the town so it makes sense for us to be able to offer Wi-Fi to visitors, especially as it is something that a lot of people tend to expect to have anyway these days."

Members of the council's tourism, community and publicity committee were due to be given an update by Mr Green on the initiative at a meeting last night (Wednesday, November 22).

If successful the scheme could even be expanded to include other parts of the town in the future.

Before any connection is launched, though, the council would need to consider possible rules and limitations, Mr Green added.

He said: "There are some factors to be considered, such as how long people could use the service for at a time, and whether there would be restrictions on the sites they could visit or what they could do.

"Although the connection speed should be quick, if a lot of people are connected at one time and are trying to stream videos, for example, that could potentially slow it right down."

The scheme may also be eligible for funding from the Coastal Communities Fund – a government programme designed to support the economic development of coastal communities – which could help with the cost.