A FEE to be paid by a film company for the use of council-owned land has still not been decided, despite filming nearly being finished.

An amount is still being negotiated between Lyme Regis Town Council and Fossil Films Ltd for their use of Bell Cliff while filming ‘Ammonite’, which follows a relationship between Mary Anning, played by Kate Winslet, and Frances Bell, played Saoirse Ronan.

Councillors heard that a figure has not yet been confirmed, despite filming starting in the town earlier this month.

Cllr Jeff Scowen said: “They are nearing competition, or are halfway through, and we have not yet got a figure, so the example I give is selling a car to somebody, they give them the log book, they give them the keys and say let’s talk about a price in a couple of weeks’ time – that really isn’t the way to do a negotiation.

“I am a little disappointed in the way this has been handled because as it stands now, we don’t have a figure, the negotiations, I believe, haven’t been completed and really we have to take what we are given.

“Can we learn from this in the future and really do a more professional job at negotiating?”

Cllr Michaela Ellis, Mayor of Lyme Regis, said that the film company came to the town council very late on and the town clerk, John Wright, had been working really hard with negotiations.

John Wright said: “There is an offer and there has been a series of offers and I am working on the town council’s behalf with those offers. It would be remiss of me to tell you what that sum is.

“There is a significantly improved offer from the film company.”

Cllr Scowen then asked if the figure will be made public or if the council will be entering a ‘confidentiality clause’.

Mr Wright added: “This council is entering an agreement with the film company, lots of organisations in town are entering agreements with the film company. They are not making those figures public.

“Clearly the council will get told what the figure is. Members got an email on this issue no more than a week ago in terms of where we are at with the film company.

“I think members do know, they have been kept in the loop in terms of where we have got to with discussions and negotiations.

“Members have been very clear in setting the targets and that is the target figure I am operating to.

“I will make it available to councillors and if councillors want to make that information public – absolutely fine.”

Cllr Derek Hallett said that he made a proposal at a previous meeting that any money the town council received from the film company should be spread fairly across organisations in the town.

However, Cllr Michaela Ellis said that no agreement had been made as they didn’t know how much they would get.

During filming, children from St Michael’s Primary School were lucky enough to meet Kate Winslet during a walk to the Cobb last week.

Kate was passing in her car before she got out and spoke to the children.