In 2024, the trustees approved design plans presented by the engineering and technical services company Binnies. These plans involve the installation of 15,000 tons of rock armour to help protect the harbour from the impacts of climate change. The detailed plans have been reviewed and well received by Cornwall Council and the Environment Agency. We have also obtained a licence from the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) for this work to go ahead. The cost has been estimated to be c£3m- £4m for the project.
The Trustees have undertaken a considerable amount of work on climate change and the impacts it will have on Mevagissey Harbour with Cornwall County Council, the Environment Agency, Marine-i, Kovia and Plymouth University. This work and the reports produced are contained in the climate change section of our website.
The last condition report on the piers was undertaken in 2012 by Royal Haskoning and this described that some elements of the North Pier were in Poor Condition with a residual life of 5 – 10 years, before the structure starts to fail. Royal Haskoning also stated that over the course of the next century accelerated sea level rise will increase wave loading on many coastal structures. This will tend to accelerate structure degradation, and lead to instability/collapse in some cases, unless measures are undertaken to prevent this. It also means that new structures will generally have to be larger than those they replace.
We have applied to Cornwall’s Good Growth fund and to the EA for grant funding to enable this work to go ahead but unfortunately we have not been successful so far as grant funding has been very limited due to the current economic conditions facing the country.
