TWO town councillors came to the rescue when a cygnet was in danger of being washed away in Dawlish. 

The alarm was raised by a member of the public reporting one of the cygnets was stranded on the wrong side of the Viaduct and could have been washed out to sea. 

It had headed that way as the other pair of nesting swans had bullied and pushed it out of the way.

Cllrs Alan Pyne and Huw Weatherhead leapt into action.

A council spokesman said: ‘They donned their wader boots and carried out a cygnet rescue on the Lawn. It was not what they were expecting to do that evening when they were attending the council meeting. 

‘After successfully placing the cygnet on the Lawn they returned to the council meeting.

‘All the four cygnets are now moved to the aviary as a temporary measure to get used to the surroundings upstream from Tuck’s Plot where they have been, before being hopefully let out again further up the Brook area.’

The video shows the cygnet back on the Lawn happily tucking into grass.