Prince of Wales Pier structural problems options discussed

At a meeting of Falmouth Town Council's finance and general purpose committee last night, Cllr Jayne Kirkham told councillors that there were still structural problems with the pier.

She said following a meeting with Chris Jones maritime manager with Cornwall Council they had been told of the different options there were and how much they were going to cost.

"There are a lot of problems, issues with the pier," said. "Since then myself and the mayor have had a meeting with the chair of the harbour's board.

"They accept it is very important to the people of Falmouth and they have access to certain pots of funding. The county council own the pier and expect it to be restored to disability access standards."

Falmouth mayor Steve Eva said that the Truro and Falmouth Harbour's Board, which is responsible for the pier, had given three options for its future.

"The chairman of the harbour's board admitted it had responsibility to run a facility for the people of Falmouth to be used by boats," he said. "Therefore they have to do something.

"They basically wanted to know whether the people of Falmouth wanted to knock down the pier and replace it or knock it down and don't do anything or repair it."

Problems with the pier were first reported in the Packet in December when it was said that the pier was in such a bad state of repair it required "significant" investment as parts of it fell into the sea.

Since the last inspection by Cornwall Council in June 2021 the destruction had accelerated with more steps falling into the sea. Some of the steps are suffering from concrete cancer and have been closed with boats unable to use them to embark and disembark.

In a statement issued to the Packet at the time Cornwall Council said the pier was safe for general public access and ferries operating winter services were doing so from steps 1, 4 & 6 with no service disruption.

Steps #3 were closed following the failure of a step which the St Mawes ferry was moored to. Steps #2 and Steps #5 required significant structural work and will remain out of service for the time being.

Cornwall Council and the harbour board have been contacted for further comment.

Ms Kirkham also added that she had been talking to a representative of the Environment Agency about the money it had to do something about the flooding on Market Strand and were discussing the options available.