Holiday business owners and residents in a famous seaside resort say it is being ruined by “moronic” antisocial behaviour – and smells of drugs. Weymouth in Dorset is famous for its sandy beaches which attracts two million day trips a year bringing in millions of holidaymakers’ money annually.

But some locals and BnB and hotel owners say there are increasing reports of fights, street-drinking and drug deals. People who live and work in the town say the problems have affected holidaymakers’ experiences – with customers saying they will not come back. They believe authorities need to do more to tackle the constant stench of smoking of marijuana and the issues with antisocial behaviour.

Lee Waugh, 57, a military veteran who has lived in Weymouth since his teenage years, believes the problems are getting out of hand.

He said: “It’s definitely got worse. The levels of the problems seem to be higher.

“For example, we need tables out the front to showcase our clothes and bring people into the shop, but opportunists steal them. It’s a catch 22. It’s a problem in town – groups can cause mayhem.

“They need to issue more orders to keep them out of town, and actually enforce them. I’ve noticed in the winter it doesn’t seem so bad, but come the summer I fully expect it will return.

“There’s a lot of weed – you can smell it. People don’t even hide it through town, they’re walking up and down the street with it.

“It’s the pack mentality with groups, just yobs who are only young – my mate got beaten up and had to go to hospital.

“The town looks run down as well, it’s quite a deprived area and there is a lot of poverty, and if it starts to show in the town and, with the antisocial behaviour in with it, it can be an unpleasant place to come.

“If you happen to be one of the people who gets caught up in, you probably won’t come back again.

“But under austerity, they closed everything, all the youth centres and progress made in the 90s stopped. Young people have nowhere to hang out.

“I think we could do with a few more officers on the beat, even if they’re just community support officers.

“I’m a mod and we used to invade towns in the 80s, but it’s nothing like what the young people do today.”

Janet and David Dye, 67 and 71, are from Basildon, Essex, but frequently visit their son who lives in the town.

David – a retired manual labourer – believes it is not fair on families who visit the area.

He said: “If you are drinking a bottle of beer in the street, the police should stop you and tell you to tip it out – that’s supposed to be the law.

“But a lot of the time they won’t, until someone complains that they’re drunk. But weed is the main problem, and the authorities shouldn’t let everyone do it.

Janet, who used to work in the hospitality sector, said: “Don’t they have community officers who are supposed to be here walking up and down? We’ve been coming here loads for 13 years, and we’ve never seen any.

David said: “They should have people monitoring it, walking up and down, and if they catch them, give them a warning and take the stuff away, and then if they get caught again they should be prosecuted.

“That’s everywhere. And that’s why they’re smoking weed, they’ve got nothing else to do so they cause a nuisance.

“If they want to play with knives, stick them in the army. That’ll teach them discipline and teach them respect, because most of them haven’t got any.

“People get more money from benefits than a job, they turn around and say ‘It’s not worth us going to work, we get more money on benefits’.

“We should send them out and tell them to sweep this promenade, pick the rubbish up, then at the end of the week, when they’ve got something signed to say they’ve done it, they can get their benefit. Work for it.

Janet added: “But the government doesn’t think like that do they? They really don’t.

“There’s no community groups or programmes or anything for children who are above the age of 12, 11 or 12. There’s nothing for the older children.”

Barry Coleman, 69, has owned the shop Baan 57 for four years.

He says that, although business is going well, they have suffered significantly from shoplifting and antisocial behaviour.

He said: “It’s gotten better since McDonald’s shut down. We have to constantly keep an eye on shoplifting though, we have cameras and there is a problem with youths who steal jewellery.

“We call this weed alley. Every time someone walks by there’s a big waft which comes through.

“Lots of visitors have been put off here, but that’s high streets across the country. I do have to say that the council does keep the seafront nice and clean, but having the drug dealers and street drinkers on the back streets will have an effect on holiday-makers.

“The problem just gets shifted around the town, rather than solved. But the problem for councils in these coastal areas is that they tend to have empty BnBs and hotels in the winter, so they get sent lots of homeless people to these places.

“So these coastal areas can become less and less popular. But there’s a problem with homelessness across the country.

“Several shops have radios connected to each other and the community police, to deal with violent people or shop-lifting and that shouldn’t be necessary.

Danny Luong, 54, works in Weymouth at Baan 57. He is originally from Vietnam, but has lived in the area for a number of years and believes the police do not do enough once they catch the problem-makers.

He said: “I’ve seen these morons fighting in the street.

“The community police do a good job, but they catch the morons, disperse them, but they don’t do anything, they don’t prosecute them, so they come back.

“According to the police and crime commissioner, last year crime went down here – it hasn’t, it’s gone up – but now you have to fill out so many forms, it’s 12 pages long. And it’s just not worth the time, so nobody gets prosecuted and crime looks like it’s going down.

Kate Matthews, 56, has lived in Weymouth for 11 years and has owned the shop Pimpled since October 2024.

She said: “There are definitely more instances of large groups that are on the seafront that are drunk and noisy.

“The biggest problem in Weymouth is teenagers. Particularly round by the station, that is a major, major problem, but luckily they don’t tend to come in here.

“We have a WhatsApp group for the street so we can let each other know and we can look on the CCTV and check. It’s sometimes the people you least expect – like a young couple in their 20s.

“I’ve had a couple of moments where I’ve recommended people to stop whatever it is they’re thinking of doing.

“There is something about railway stations that attracts drug users – maybe it’s because it’s lit all night. And it does seem to be youngsters, and when there’s 20 of them it can be intimidating.

“It’s definitely gotten worse – since lockdown I think. Without question to me it’s a Covid thing, people lost their manners. Even something as simple as holding a door. But I think it will improve, it has to.

“I do like the old–school approach of police officers on the beat. We need more at the weekends, when it’s busier.

“They’re supposed to have no money but they have enough to buy drugs, and they have all the clothes that they want to wear, but so far they’re leaving my business alone.”

Roger Hart of the Lyndale Guest House, told the Dorset Echo guests were complaining after two fights outside last week and they vowed ‘they’re not coming back’.

Another said he’d seen drug dealing behind his hotel and they have been vandalised regularly.

One hotelier said the shoplifting was ‘terrible’ and that ”drinkers in shelters’ were causing an issue and anti-social behaviour is a ”daily occurrence”

But another said last summer was better than previous years.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Callaghan told the Dorset Echo: “Dorset remains a safe place to live and visit.

“Our collective efforts have seen reported anti-social behaviour reduce by six per cent last year compared to the previous year and a huge 40 per cent since 2021 thanks to a range of partnership operations and initiatives.

”Anyone who continues to come to notice will be considered for further action, such as community protection notices and criminal behaviour orders.”