Mounts Bay Coastal Resilience Strategy

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Mounts Bay is a beautiful and vital part of Cornwall. It’s home to thriving communities, historic harbours, popular beaches, and important natural habitats. However, the coastline faces growing challenges from the sea. Without action, many of the things we value here could be lost. Lots of the defences in Mounts Bay are ageing and in poor condition. Some are patched up after storms, but this “do minimum” approach is unsustainable and not cost-effective. Rising sea levels and more extreme weather will also put existing defences under increasing pressure. This will put homes, businesses, roads, and railways at risk. The graphic below shows some of the risks to Mounts Bay without action:

Map showing likely impacts in Mounts Bay including: erosion or loss of harbours, property, open space, community facilities and heritage sites; regular flooding of homes, businesses, railway line and coastal roads.


Cornwall Council and the Environment Agency have developed a joint strategy to manage flooding and coastal erosion risks in Mounts Bay, now and into the future. The Mounts Bay Strategy has three key aims:

  • Provide a long term structure for flood and coastal erosion risk management. This approach means we can prioritise the most urgent projects. It also means we can be confident completing these projects won't negatively affect other areas of the bay.
  • Inform and guide other initiatives in the area to develop in a sustainable manner, considering risk management plans.

  • Ensure coordinated investment across the bay. Identify potential synergies between organisations and opportunities to work together.


What is the Mounts Bay Coastal Resilience Strategy?

The Mounts Bay Coastal Resilience Strategy brings together lots of studies completed in the area over the last 10 years. It analyses all available management options to find a preferred approach for the future. This approach gives an overall plan for the whole bay. We can implement individual projects based on this overall plan, which focuses on controlled adaptation with sandscaping. This would include:

  • Maintain existing defences around the harbours and Mousehole coast road
  • Implement sandscaping around Eastern Green and Longrock
  • Build control structures to protect Penzance promenade
  • Controlled setback of defences in western Marazion and Tolcarne, gradually moving the defence inland in a managed way
  • Incorporate nature based solutions where possible. Examples include around the Lariggan Valley and Foster Bolitho Gardens. We can also green existing structures.

You can find out more about what the preferred option would mean for your area in our Mounts Bay Strategy summary document.

Want to find out more?

We will be hosting a Facebook live event about the strategy on the 23rd March at 6:30pm. At this event a panel made up of Cornwall Council, the Environment Agency, technical experts and local representatives will be ready to give more information and answer your questions about the strategy. We encourage you to submit your questions using the 'questions' tab below.

We would like your feedback

We would welcome feedback from residents and businesses in the area. To provide your feedback, please complete the survey below by 10 May 2026.

The survey includes questions about:

  1. Your awareness of flood and coastal risks in Mounts Bay
  2. Your support for the preferred option
  3. Any concerns or objections to the preferred option

Before you start the survey:

Please take some time to read the summary document, which outlines in more detail what the strategy recommends for each area of the bay. We also have FAQs that may help answer your questions.

Next Steps

All your feedback will be taken into consideration in the development of the final strategy document. The strategy will then be adopted by partner organisations.

Mounts Bay is a beautiful and vital part of Cornwall. It’s home to thriving communities, historic harbours, popular beaches, and important natural habitats. However, the coastline faces growing challenges from the sea. Without action, many of the things we value here could be lost. Lots of the defences in Mounts Bay are ageing and in poor condition. Some are patched up after storms, but this “do minimum” approach is unsustainable and not cost-effective. Rising sea levels and more extreme weather will also put existing defences under increasing pressure. This will put homes, businesses, roads, and railways at risk. The graphic below shows some of the risks to Mounts Bay without action:

Map showing likely impacts in Mounts Bay including: erosion or loss of harbours, property, open space, community facilities and heritage sites; regular flooding of homes, businesses, railway line and coastal roads.


Cornwall Council and the Environment Agency have developed a joint strategy to manage flooding and coastal erosion risks in Mounts Bay, now and into the future. The Mounts Bay Strategy has three key aims:

  • Provide a long term structure for flood and coastal erosion risk management. This approach means we can prioritise the most urgent projects. It also means we can be confident completing these projects won't negatively affect other areas of the bay.
  • Inform and guide other initiatives in the area to develop in a sustainable manner, considering risk management plans.

  • Ensure coordinated investment across the bay. Identify potential synergies between organisations and opportunities to work together.


What is the Mounts Bay Coastal Resilience Strategy?

The Mounts Bay Coastal Resilience Strategy brings together lots of studies completed in the area over the last 10 years. It analyses all available management options to find a preferred approach for the future. This approach gives an overall plan for the whole bay. We can implement individual projects based on this overall plan, which focuses on controlled adaptation with sandscaping. This would include:

  • Maintain existing defences around the harbours and Mousehole coast road
  • Implement sandscaping around Eastern Green and Longrock
  • Build control structures to protect Penzance promenade
  • Controlled setback of defences in western Marazion and Tolcarne, gradually moving the defence inland in a managed way
  • Incorporate nature based solutions where possible. Examples include around the Lariggan Valley and Foster Bolitho Gardens. We can also green existing structures.

You can find out more about what the preferred option would mean for your area in our Mounts Bay Strategy summary document.

Want to find out more?

We will be hosting a Facebook live event about the strategy on the 23rd March at 6:30pm. At this event a panel made up of Cornwall Council, the Environment Agency, technical experts and local representatives will be ready to give more information and answer your questions about the strategy. We encourage you to submit your questions using the 'questions' tab below.

We would like your feedback

We would welcome feedback from residents and businesses in the area. To provide your feedback, please complete the survey below by 10 May 2026.

The survey includes questions about:

  1. Your awareness of flood and coastal risks in Mounts Bay
  2. Your support for the preferred option
  3. Any concerns or objections to the preferred option

Before you start the survey:

Please take some time to read the summary document, which outlines in more detail what the strategy recommends for each area of the bay. We also have FAQs that may help answer your questions.

Next Steps

All your feedback will be taken into consideration in the development of the final strategy document. The strategy will then be adopted by partner organisations.

What questions would you like answered at our Facebook live about the strategy?

We are hosting a Facebook live about the Mounts Bay Coastal Resilience Strategy on the 23rd March at 6:30pm. This event will have a panel made up of Cornwall Council, the Environment Agency, technical experts and local representatives, ready to answer your questions! Please post the questions you'd like to see covered, so that we can make sure you get the answers you need.

You need to be signed in to add your question.

Page published: 11 Mar 2026, 10:34 AM