As more storms barrel into Cornwall's coast, most of the damage caused by wild weather at the start of this year has been completed, but not all.

Repairs commissioned by Cornwall Council have now been completed on 56 schemes in coastal areas, including at Mullion Harbour and Looe Harbour, both of which are privately owned.

Cornwall experienced twelve major storms between December 2013 and March 2014, causing huge damage to coastal infrastructure in 245 locations, including the closure of the main rail line into Cornwall at Dawlish.

All of Cornwall was affected in some way, including flooding of property and land at Wadebridge, Perranporth, Looe, St Ives, Bude, Portreath, Penzance, Fowey, Mevagissey and Penryn and damage to sea defences, beaches, piers, breakwaters, harbours and cliffs.

A number of people were forced to temporarily leave their properties, and many businesses, including fishing and tourism related businesses, suffered considerable financial losses.

More than £9.5m of works to repair the coastal areas damaged by the storms have been carried out by the Council over the past few months. This has been funded primarily from the Environment Agency, with a small contribution coming from the Council’s budget.

In addition to the funding for repairs to coastal areas the authority also received an additional £1.2m funding from the Department of Transport Small Ports fund and £10.7m from the Department of Transport for repairs to damaged highway infrastructure. In total the Council has received over £20m in Government funding in relation to last winter’s storm damage.

A significant amount of work took place in the aftermath of the storms to carry out immediate repairs.

Permanent works have now been carried out in these areas, with schemes ranging from £5,000 to £500,000.

“Flooding is a real risk faced by residents and businesses across Cornwall” said Edwina Hannaford, the council’s cabinet member for environment, heritage and planning.

“Many parts of Cornwall suffered enormous damage as a result of the floods which battered the county at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. It has taken time to carry out the repairs , with more work still to do in some areas. I would like to thank the communities which were affected for their continued support during these works.

As well as works being carried out by the Council’s contractor CORMAC, the authority commissioned works through the Environment Agency’s external contractor BMM to ensure the schemes were completed in time for the forthcoming winter.

There are eleven sites remaining where repair works are still ongoing. These are Portreath, Hannafore - Looe, St Mawes sea wall, Trevone, Talland Bay, Constantine Bay, Gyllyngvase, Portwrinkle, Praa Sands, Wheal Dream and Newquay Towan. 

On these sites measures have been put in place where required to manage the risk of further damage whilst the works are completed.

The last scheme to be completed is likely to be at Towan Beach in Newquay where the works are extensive and complex. This scheme is expected to be completed by the end of February 2015.