A pedestrian scheme for a Weymouth street could be a short-lived experiment.

Borough councillors have approved £12,000 for an experimental traffic order which will take cars and delivery vehicles out of St Alban Street.

But the temporary order will only run for six months and it will then be up to the new Dorset Council to decide if it wants to find an extra £80,000 to made the traffic order permanent.

Cllr Colin Huckle said that if the borough council paid for the scheme there was little to stop it being in place very quickly, but if the county council was asked to pay it could take a long time.

Support for the idea came from Cllr Gill Taylor although she said she would have liked to have seen a consultation first.

She told Tuesday’s borough management committee that if the traffic free street was liked the borough council could be seen to have ‘shot itself in the foot’ if either the new Dorset Council, or the new Weymouth Town Council were not prepared to stump up the extra money to make it permanent.

Cllr Richard Nickinson said that if the temporary order was for just six months it might be better not to rush into getting the traffic orders but to hold on until the spring so that it covered the summer season.

A report to the committee said the scheme was “considered to be an important way of supporting the town centre economy and to improve the safety of shoppers.”