An extra £325,000 is being requested for an extension to the harbour master's office at Lyme Regis.

The sum is in addition to £200,000 which has already been pledged by West Dorset District Council after a critical Health and Safety inspection of the building.

A decision is expected to be made at the council's strategy committee when it meets in Dorchester on July 17th.

Councillors are being told that agreement to the finance is needed to allow a contractor to be chosen and the work to be started in September this year and finished by Easter 2019.

The district council was served with a contravention notice in November 2015 by the Health and Safety Executive because the building had unsanitary kitchen facilities; no space for rest and eating meals and no suitable accommodation for changing into and out of working clothes. At the time £200,000 was put into the budget to make improvements.

By May this year, when bids were closed, the council found that the average bid for the work was £360,000.

But since the HSE notice the council has also incurred additional costs renting a temporary office and appointing a designer and quantity surveyor – leaving only £148,000 from the original budget of £200,000.

The council has also since decided to 'future proof' the new office with the proposed two storey building having an additional meeting room, a gantry to observe the surrounding coastline and air conditioning. Additional costs are also likely because of the type of foundations needed for the new building, which is alongside The Cobb.

A sum of £62,000 is also being added to the project as a contingency sum in the event of delays because of the weather, or other, unexpected problems.

If the funding is approved the design of the new building will go before the district planning committee two days later, on July 19th.

The strategy committee is also being asked to approve a £1.0M contribution toward an overall scheme to improve the Cobb at a cost of £2.30M.

Councillors will be told that preparatory work on the Grade 1 listed structure has revealed 'significant' signs of scour which is destabilising the structure.

The work will also improve the surface of the Cobb and make improvements to the landing quay and Cobb Buildings.