CAMPAIGNERS in Shaldon hoping to keep the former ferryboat workshop in community hands have warned district leaders to heed the wishes of those elected to represent them.

On Tuesday members of Teignbridge Council's overview and scrutiny committee won a stay of execution by ordering the leadership to think again about selling the riverside building to the highest bidder.

Last month the executive agreed it could go to a mystery buyer for £200,000, almost twice the sum offered by the Shaldon Regatta Association.

The decision was defended on the grounds that both bids guaranteed public access and the authority was duty bound to get the best price.

But the result was a groundswell of opinion that the community had been denied the opportunity to make the most of the facility and that the buyer's true intentions were not known.<