Mousehole harbour to get £100k of improvements

Mousehole Harbour will get new equipment

A harbour in Cornwall is getting a new crane and pontoons as part of a "significant" £100,705 makeover to boost the fishing and coastal community.

The new harbour crane would be used to lift and move of heavy fishing gear, catch, and equipment "in a safer and more efficient way" at Mousehole Harbour, according to the harbour master.

The plans include five new pontoons, designed as floating rafts, which would rise and fall with the tide, and could be removed during events such as the Sea, Salts and Sail Festival, so larger boats could berth alongside the quay, Harbour Master Micky Bacon added.

The work is being funded by the Marine Management Organisation's Fisheries and Seafood Scheme.

Mr Bacon said the investment was "an important step forward for Mousehole".

He said the equipment would "make a real difference to those who fish from the harbour, giving them safer, ladder free access and more flexible facilities" and would help the working harbour as well as leisure users.

"It's going to enable us to do an awful lot of stuff for the fishers in Mousehole," he added.

"Potentially, we're going to get fishermen back who can't currently use ladders. So, in terms of community, both for the commercial fishers its great and the pleasure craft that also come along can use it too."

He said the pontoons would help with health and safety, minimising the amount of ladders people needed to climb.

Records about Mousehole's role as a fishing port date back to 1266, according to the Harbour Master's office, and the harbour is closed during the winter months.