The saga of the Weymouth fairy lights may not be over amid hopes the new town council could make room for them.

A 1,500 name petition calling for the return of the lights was brought before a meeting of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

The number of signatories fell short of the 4,250 that were needed to force the council to debate the issue.

However, in a brief discussion, councillors decided to pass the request to the new Weymouth Town Council, which comes into being in April next year.

It could mean that the new authority considers the lights elsewhere in the town – possibly along the harbourside.

Borough council Tourism and Culture Briefholder Cllr Richard Kosior said he wanted to reject the petition’s call for the lights on the seafront because it has already been decided the council will be putting up a new computer-controlled light system on the Esplanade in 2019 with the help of a £200,000 one-off grant.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Kosior said the new council might like to consider the ‘fairy’ lights for somewhere else, possibly around the harbour, but whatever they did would be their decision.

In the meeting Cllr Ryan Hope backed the call for the petition to go to the new council for consideration when it comes into being next year: “It’s quite obvious that this council (the borough) is not interested in fairy lights,” he said.

The strings of coloured bulbs known as the fairy lights which used to twinkle along the seafront were popular – but were removed as part of an Esplanade regeneration scheme in about 2011.

Campaigners said the seafront became a dark and unwelcoming place without them.

But the council said the lights were too expensive to maintain.