Multi-million pound plans to move Teignmouth's cliffside railway line further out to sea have been put on hold, following major opposition from the public.

Earlier this year, Network Rail held a consultation on its latest proposal to remodel the line between Teignmouth and Holcombe, placing it further away from the cliffs to avoid the risk of rock falls.

The scheme would have cost hundreds of millions of pounds, and would take eight years to complete.

Today (Wednesday, October 14) the rail company said it would be taking some more time to review the plans, after the feedback from the public showed that more than half did not support the proposals.

Almost 3,000 people attended 11 consultation events, and around 1,600 submitted written responses, some of which ran into several pages.

Nearly three quarters strongly agreed that the stretch of railway needs to be made more resilient, but 51 per cent disagreed with the proposed solution.

There were concerns about the environmental impact of the scheme, the amount of time it would take to build and the effect on the local economy.

In a statement on its website, the company said: "We received some good and considered feedback from our consultation, which can positively influence our plans, and it is important that we get this significant scheme right.

"As a result of the feedback, we are now refining the plans even further with a view to sharing these revisions with the public next year.

"We'll now spend the next few months working through this detail; once we have our refined plans, we will schedule a further round of public consultation in 2021.

"This means that we won't be applying to the Secretary of State for a Transport and Works Act Order this year. We will only seek permission to carry out the work when we've done this further engagement."

A spokesman for the Save Holcombe and Teignmouth Beaches campaign said he was not surprised by Network Rail's decision.

He said the proposed scheme would have cost more per kilometre than HS2, and that this level of expenditure was not justified.

He said the delays on that stretch of track are mainly caused not by rock falls but by waves overtopping the railway, and a simpler and cheaper solution would involve breakwaters and rock shelters.