A £1 million-plus 'black hole' has decimated the Teignmouth Harbour Commission accounts, just as it was gradually recovering from the recession.

The body has been ordered to chip in £1.125 million towards a huge deficit in the national pension fund of harbour pilots, after years of legal wrangling.

It takes the shine off improved trading figures during the past financial year, and the court ruling has been lambasted as 'massively unfair' by the harbour bosses.