Those behind Spalding’s water taxi hope a year without the service will entice more users in 2021.
The attraction which ferries people between the town and Springfields was not able to open in March in line with government guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although those guidelines changed to allow it to operate, it would have left just five weeks of its regular season and the operators did not think that would be financially viable.
Its staff, including operations manager Anthony Grunwell, are currently on furlough.
The water taxi is subsidised by Broadgate Homes.
Ian Canham, who oversees the project on their behalf, said: “We couldn’t start due to the government guidelines and when those changed it left us with just a five week season.
“If you’ll pardon the pun, the timing of the announcement meant we missed the boat.
“There’s a lot we would have had to have done and we decided we couldn’t go with it.
“We’ll look at some repairs and we’ve already done work on a new charging point and we’ll be ready to go for next March.
“At the end of the day, bigger things have gone than the water taxi and we’ve taken a sensible approached.
“We did consider allowing self hire but the Environmental Agency have also had people on furlough and a lot of the water is clogged up with weeds.
“It would be a shame for it to die a death as there’s not many towns with something so niche.
“But after 12 years people start taking it for granted so hopefully after a year’s break more people will come back to it next year.”
