SOUTH Hams District Council have gone to tender with the contract for the fun fair on the Quay.

The Kingsbridge Fair Week committee called the decision a ‘disappointment’ and thanked everyone who signed the online petition.

There is a paper petition available to sign in Quay House, the Kingsbridge Information Centre and Kaleidoscope. The committee are asking people to continue to sign it because ‘Kingsbridge should be able to choose how they wish their event to run, not have South Hams District Council running roughshod over our feelings’.

A spokesman for SHDC said: ’South Hams District Council have a duty of care to residents and businesses to tender the contracts we hold which deliver services and we must ensure fairness in allocating these public contracts.’

In a letter to the Gazette, the Fair Week committee said: ‘Cllr John Tucker, leader of the council told us in an email that SHDC will be going out to tender where there is competition to operate on SHDC land or assets but, no other fairground operators have approached Kingsbridge Fair Week to come in, so who is this competition from?

‘Cllr Tucker also says that they have a duty to the community of the South Hams, but surely that also includes the people of Kingsbridge and the smooth running of Kingsbridge Fair Week and the associated events like Rotaproj.’

Read more in the Kingsbridge & Salcombe Gazette.