The masts of Sheppey's bomb ship have won a surprise last-minute reprieve.

The Department for Transport says the eight-week operation to cut down the rusting structures on the American munitions ship SS Richard Montgomery has been postponed until next year.

Work on removing the masts from the wreck of the ship, which sank off Sheerness during the Second World War, was to have started this month.

Maritime contractors Briggs Marine won the £4.8m contract in October.

Surveys have already been undertaken to check for spilled bombs on the seabed.

In a letter to Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson, maritime minister Robert Courts admits the project is continuing to encounter "unexpected challenges".

He said contractors will be on site over the summer to remove "potential unexploded ordnance" from around the wreck and to decide what equipment is needed to safely remove the masts.

He added: "Given such work will not be possible during the winter, I anticipate the mast cutting itself will be during next spring."

Mr Courts has also welcomed a campaign to displays the masts "in perpetuity in a local museum or other appropriate place" once they are removed and revealed he has agreement in principle from the US Government, which still owns the wreck.

He added: "This has been our goal from the outset."

Earlier this month, it emerged a bid is brewing in Essex to battle it out with the Kent side of the Thames estuary about where the masts should end up.

Both Southend and Sheerness are launching bids to put them on display.

The hold of the ship dubbed Britain's "doomsday wreck" is still packed with 14,000 munitions containing about 1,400 tonnes of TNT of uncertain stability after thousands of tonnes were removed during a salvage operation after she sank.

Experts have warned that if the bombs ever exploded, the shockwave could create a deadly tsunami at the mouth of the Thames threatening Sheerness and Southend.

The government ordered the masts to be chopped down in case they fell onto the bombs below during bad weather.

Swale councillor Ken Rowles (Lab, Roman), who made a hard-hitting documentary about the wreck called A Disaster Waiting To Happen, said: "I'm very concerned about the delay. Those masts have been in the water for almost 78 years and must be very rotten.

"Any delay in making the wreck safe is most concerning although I had been planning to film the removal to add to my documentary."

But the delay has been welcomed by Martin Harmer of the X-Pilot who has been doing a roaring trade running trips around the wreck for tourists to grab a "last look" at the masts.

He said: "We are certainly not unhappy with this news and will continue to add the Montgomery to our trips to see the Redsand Towers and the Shivering Sands Forts. We'd hate to lose a tourist attraction like this."

Richard Bain, whose company Jetstream Tours runs trips to Southend and gin cruises and fish and chip supper cruises from Queenborough, added: "We have not heard anything officially so we are still running trips around the wreck. They have proved very popular.

"People are still anxious to see the masts. Some have been out with us two or three times."

The de-masting operation described as “highly technical and challenging” is being supervised by the Department for Transport (DfT) on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The Montgomery, packed with 7,000 tons of ammunition from America destined for Cherbourg, ran aground on a sandbank after dragging her anchor during a summer storm on August 20, 1944.

She now lies a few hundred metres from a major shipping channel used by liquid natural gas (LNG) tankers going to the Isle of Grain.