£1.9million project to help secure town’s position as regional fishing hub

Hyder Consulting, the leading environmental, planning, engineering and management consultancy, has successfully completed a £1.9 million regeneration project in Newlyn Harbour, Penzance, as part of a regeneration scheme to secure the town’s position as a centre for fishing in the South West.

The development has taken seven months to complete with 80 pontoon berths being developed to assist the small boat fishing fleet (those vessels less than 15m in length). These berths are additional to the existing berthing facilities in the harbour and have created a safer and more efficient working environment of the fleet.

Newlyn harbour is the home of the largest annual fish catch in England and Wales and the pontoon moorings have been developed within the inner harbour at Newlyn, which dates back to medieval times.

In addition to constructing the pontoons, the project has seen part of the harbour dredged to improve access. Historical use of the harbour had contaminated the seabed with Tributyl – tin (TBT), which meant that the dredged material cold not be dumped at sea.

In conjunction with the contractor May Gurney, a system of treating the sediments was agreed with the Environment Agency, which allowed the material to be used at Sandy Cove to raise flood levels. The chemical systems used during the remediation recently won a Remediation Innovation Award, a ceremony organised by Brownfield Briefing and held at the BAFTA’s in London.

Prior to the construction of the pontoons fishing boats using Newlyn had to berth side by side, creating a line of boats that stretched out into the harbour, meaning fishing boat crews had to traverse a number of boats to make it to dry land. The arrangement was inconvenient, made loading and unloading vessels difficult and posed health and safety risks for the fishermen, with the result that some had started to leave Newlyn for new home ports.

“The pontoons have been built to safeguard both jobs and lives. The small fishing boats no longer have to compete for space with the larger boats, which removes the risk of crushing, and the men can now simply walk off their boats onto the pontoons instead of clambering over several boats and up ladders,” states Jon Pratten, Project Manager, Hyder Consulting.

“The project is expected to enable the fishing fleet to land and get its catch to market faster and more efficiently than has been possible to date and also makes it easier to supply the vessels, increasing the length of time that crews can stay at sea.”

For further information please contact

George Ullstein / Susie Pagan
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
020 7282 1078/ 020 7282 1068
Email: George.ullstein@citigatedr.co.uk; Susie.pagan@citigatedr.co.uk

Notes to editor

Hyder Consulting is a leading management and infrastructure consultancy offering multi-discipline planning ,engineering design and environmental services.  Spanning more than two centuries of engineering excellent the company employs around 2,800 people worldwide, including 1400 in the UK and the rest of Europe.  It generated gross revenues of £122.3 million in the last financial year.

The company listed on the Stock Exchange in October 2002.
www.hyderconsulting.com