TEIGNBRIDGE Council has given up hopes of selling off the Teignmouth to shaldon ferry – at least for the time being.

Executive members have instead agreed to tender for a new operator on a 15-year lease.

A plea that the previous operator Jim Trout should be given first refusal fell on deaf ears.

Teignmouth town councillor Don Baldey, who asked to speak to the committee on Tuesday, said that the council had a moral obligation to give Mr Trout first option.

Council leader Cllr Alan Connett thanked Mr Trout for running the ferry until the end of October but said he would have to bid 'along with everyone else'.

He said: 'This council is not in a position to offer a favour to any one contractor.'

Cllr Sally Morgan said: 'It is incredibly important that we own this service for the benefit of all the people of Teignbridge. It is a service, not just a commercial operation.

'I'm very pleased that for the next 15 years it will remain public transport.'

But this was not the outcome the Executive wanted. It had voted to sell off the ferry as part of the asset disposal policy, only to have its hands tied by Shaldon parish council, which lodged an objection with the Department of Transport.

The most likely purchaser, Mr Trout, said that the figures didn't add up and announced his intention to quit at the end of October. The council then went through two separate tendering processes to try to find someone willing to take it on a temporary basis, without success.

Councillors were clearly anxious to keep the break in service as short as possible. Cllr Sylvia Russell asked if it could be run on an interim basis. Cllr Gordon Hook wondered if the council could carry out the necessary boat repairs itself.

Both suggestions were rejected by Cllr Connett as impractical.

The new tender documents are expected to go out within two weeks, with a new contract signed by the end of the year.

Kevin Gilding, service lead for economic development, estimated that boat repairs would take two to three months.

'It is likely the ferry won't be operating until Easter,' he said.