A Cornish fishing village is facing a crisis as there are no longer enough working fishing boats to fund repairs to the crumbling harbour.
A Cornish fishing village that will be familiar to viewers of the long-running ITV show Doc Martin, starring Martin Clunes, is facing a crisis as there are no longer enough working fishing boats to fund repairs to the crumbling harbour.
The Guardian reports that householders in Port Isaac, on the north coast of Cornwall, are concerned that if the sea defences that protect the village are not repaired, properties could be flooded when faced with Atlantic storms.
For over a century, the fishing community has banded together to maintain the breakwaters, but with only two full-time working fishing vessels left in the harbour, there are not the funds to pay for repairs.
The Port Isaac harbour commissioners recently launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to try and raise the £60,000 needed to undertake the work. In fact, at the time of writing, an impressive £60,667 has been raised.
One section of the eastern breakwater, which was constructed in the 1920s, has already collapsed.
Dugald Sproull, the chair of the harbour commissioners, said the final cost to repair the wall could be ‘eye-watering’, but added that homes and businesses will be at risk if the breakwater further deteriorates.
In the crowdfunding appeal, the commissioners said that in recent years, commercial fishing vessels have dropped from around ten to just two, and with no more commercial boats left in the harbour, there will be no one left to maintain the infrastructure.
“It will be only a matter of time until the breakwaters fall into disrepair and, with sea levels rising, the bottom of the village will be regularly flooded and become unsustainable and uninsurable,” Mr Sproull said.
The commissioners are paid by the TV production company responsible for Doc Martin, which is currently filming for a new series, and it is hoped that some of the funds can be diverted to help repair the breakwater.
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