Town councillors have decided to re-advertise the tender for running Dover's seafront toilets, and to operate the facility themselves in the meantime.

The decision was made at a special meeting of Dover Town Council this evening which had been called because the only bid which was submitted came from a community interest company set up by one of the councillors and a business colleague.

Former Mayor Cllr Sue Jones, who set up Pebbles Community Facilities with Dover businessman Ross Miller, declared an interest at the start of the meeting, and after reading a statement, left the council chamber.

Councillors were presented with three options by Cllr Gordon Cowan, chairman of the finance and general purposes committee. The first was to enter into negotiations with Pebbles and negotiate a contract with the company. The second was to re-advertise the tender as soon as possible, and the third was to instruct the town clerk to research the option of the town council operating the toilets.

After much discussion, Cllr Cowan put forward an amendment merging the second and third options, that the town clerk should research the options for the town council to directly operate the toilets until the council was ready to re-advertise the tender.

Despite some of the councillors being unclear where the money would come from to run the toilets - one councillor re-assured his colleagues that they had half a million pounds in reserves - the amendment was approved by 10 votes to 4. It was not put as a substantive motion or voted on again.

The meeting, which lasted 90 minutes, was attended by many members of the public who, when invited by the Mayor, Cllr Ronnie Philpott, to give their views, made it very clear they wanted the toilets to be open as soon as possible.

At times the meeting was fraught, with the town clerk, Allison Burton, telling one councillor at one point that she had a right to speak without interruption.

She also told councillors that she would report back to them on the options of how the council could run the toilets at their next meeting on September 25 - so it was clear that the toilets will not be open for this summer season, and perhaps not this year at all.

Several councillors said they didn't doubt Cllr Jones' commitment to the community. But another former Mayor, Cllr Anne Smith, said she had been "slightly swayed" by Cllr Jones' enthusiasm to get the toilets open when she (Cllr Jones) had been chairman of the committee dealing with the issue. "I was not for opening the toilets," said Cllr Mrs Smith.

One of those in the public gallery, estate agent Simon Crowley, described the situation as "a farce". "As a body, the collective involved are guilty of a making a mountain out of molehill. Maybe the Harbour Board will step in and take it over now like they did with the Regatta."

Cllr Jones' business partner Ross Miller said the outcome was disappointing and smacked of "school playground bully boy tactics".

"Once again our town councillors seem to have forgotten their purpose, which is to serve the residents," he said.

"I would have liked to have had the opportunity for my company to have run the toilets and concession on behalf of the community, though I do recognise it would have been some weeks before we could have opened as certain contracts would need to be negotiated."

A full report of the debate, and the consequences of the decision, will be published in the Dover Mercury next Thursday, August 15.