UPDATES: Truro Harbour and Lemon Quay
One of seven Truro Town Deal projects, the ‘Harbour and Lemon Quay’ scheme will deliver investment across the public realm including an enhanced event space with projector, new lighting and green landscaped areas at Lemon Quay; a new day boat pontoon, dredging and access improvements at Town Quay; new subway lighting; Garras Wharf pathway enhancements and the Lighterage Bridge.
These updates are to provide people working at and visiting Lemon Quay with latest on-site operational information.
To find out more on this and other Truro Town Deal projects, visit our website.
Update on Lemon Quay and Town Quays projects - January 2026
Works to revitalise Truro’s Lemon Quay began on 5 January, with the plans for Lighterage Bridge also due to move forward in the next few weeks.
Lemon Quay
The works at Lemon Quay, which are expected to take up to three months to complete, include:
- enhanced events space with a projector and improved lighting to encourage use and improve safety.
- green landscape areas including newly planted trees and soft landscaping to improve its visual appearance and biodiversity.
- improved provision of benches and street furniture.
- enhanced cycle parking provision to encourage green travel, linking in with the Town Deal funded Green Transport investment.
The scheme is being delivered by Cormac who are working with partners to ensure that people can shop, explore and get to work in Truro city centre as usual, with streets around the Quay unaffected during the works.
- Pedestrian and vehicular access will be maintained throughout, with no road closures.
- Signing, lighting and guarding will be in place to protect the public from the works.
- Bus users can access the station as usual and the public toilets are unaffected.
- For farmers markets and other events, every effort is being made to minimise disruption.
- Works begin at the Lemon Street end of the Quay, and expected to last around 14 weeks.
Alongside public realm enhancements, Truro City Council is working on its new Events Strategy for Lemon Quay. In response to a recent survey, over 1800 people shared their thoughts on how the event space on Lemon Quay should be used and the results of this survey will be used to shape the strategy.
Lighterage Bridge
Also due to take place in January 2026 is the submission of a pre-application for a Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) to the Department for Transport for Lighterage Bridge.
The TWAO is required to alter the rights of navigation for the Truro River and is an extensive piece of work requiring surveys to inform an Environmental Statement. It is anticipated the full application for the TWAO will be submitted in spring 2026.
In order to account for the extended period required for environmental and statutory approvals, Cornwall Council has taken steps to safeguard the delivery of Lighterage Bridge beyond the spending period for Town Deal funding. [MB1] [MP2] [MB3] This has been enabled by making cost neutral adjustments across the portfolio of Town Deal projects in Cornwall.
Town Quay
In spring 2026 the Town Quay works, including the former Compton Castle area, subway access and Garras Wharf, are anticipated to begin. These include:
- dredging of working quays.
- installing a new day boat/dinghy pontoon.
- surfacing works, access improvements & flag poles at Town Quay.
- improvement works to the former Compton Castle area.
- a more welcoming subway including lighting and imagery.
- Garras Wharf pathway enhancements.
- provision of cycle parking.
In late spring dredging work is expected to begin. This will lengthen the ‘tidal window’ which is the time when vessels have sufficient under-keel clearance to safely navigate waters, meaning more vessels can explore and enjoy the city and for longer.
With strong public support, the Truro Town Deal Board and Cornwall Council have staunchly maintained their commitment to the Harbour and Lemon Quay scheme in the face of continued cost pressures across the construction industry; reviewing and refining options to fit a budget which due to the impact of inflation has reduced by a third.
Got a question?
For operational queries about the works taking place at Lemon Quay in 2026 email our delivery partner, Cormac. For everything else visit the Truro Town Deal website.
About the Truro Harbour and Lemon Quay project
The aim of the Truro Harbour and Lemon Quay project is to reinvigorate neglected waterfront and community spaces to create vibrant, attractive and green spaces reconnecting people with water and attracting new audiences from the length and breadth of Cornwall. Individual elements are being designed to connect the harbour quays via pontoons, together with upgrading the Lemon Quay open space with planting.
Lighterage Bridge – plans are being developed for a new swing bridge to connect Lighterage Quay at Newham with Boscawen Park. This will provide a continuous pedestrian and cycle route loop around Truro whilst maintaining the rights of navigation for harbour users. Following changes to the original design for the bridge, a new planning application is due to be submitted to the Local Planning Authority later this year.
Lemon Quay - proposals include enhancing the public realm with new tree planting to provide shelter, colour through the seasons and improve the biodiversity of Lemon Quay. New benches and landscaping will encourage better visibility and connection to Truro River and enhance the existing design of Lemon Quay, providing opportunities to sit and relax. Greater provision of cycle parking will help to encourage use of the wider green transport links. Subway improvements will create a safer more welcoming environment.
Removal of Compton Castle – work on the long-awaited scheme to remove the former paddle steamer ‘Compton Castle’ from Lemon Quay began on 25 June 2025. The complex operation, which was carried out by specialist boat disposal company Gilpin Demolition, took six weeks to complete.
With the removal of the former paddle steamer essential to enable work to begin on the Town Quay project, last year members of the Truro Town Deal and Cornwall Harbours Board took the decision to organise and fund the operation when the boat’s owner failed to take action.
The removal of the boat marks a major milestone in the exciting plans to transform the Lemon Quay areas of the city and improve access to the waterside edge at Town Quay.
Town Quay - this scheme involves redeveloping the quay to make it more appealing as a public area. Funding pressures mean that the funding originally allocated to provide a pedestrian bridge linking to the Garras Wharf car park has been reallocated by the Town Deal Board to support the Lighterage Quay bridge scheme and the removal of the former paddle streamer the Compton Castle.
Other elements of the scheme which are continuing to be developed include improvements to public realm and include Lemon Quay adjacent to Compton Castle; a waterside path, capital dredging, day boat pontoon, ramped access from Garras wharf car park to Morlaix Avenue and improved access onto Town Quay from Morlaix avenue.
About the Truro Town Deal
Truro was one of four locations in Cornwall selected to bid for the Government’s £3.6b Towns Fund, which aims to drive economic regeneration and level up the region’s economy.
Truro secured a Town Deal of up to £23.6m in April 2021, after submitting a Town Investment Plan that outlines seven projects to revitalise the city.
To implement the plan, Truro Town Deal Board collaborates with funded partner organisations and Cornwall Council. Their aim is to create a vibrant and sustainable ‘Connected River City’ by enhancing its leisure and cultural offer, boosting business and improving its riverfront, transport, and green spaces.
These projects are part funded by the Government's Town Deal programme and delivered by Cornwall Council in partnership with the Truro Town Deal Board.
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