It was 20 years ago today that Cornwall was expecting to be inundated with people flocking to see the total eclipse of the sun.

With fears that Cornwall would be unable to cope with such a massive influx councils and emergency services worked to ensure that they would be prepared.

Looking back 20 years on we spoke to one of the council officers involved in the preparations, Paul Masters who is now strategic director for Neighbourhoods at Cornwall Council.

In 1999 Mr Masters was then working in environmental health at North Cornwall District Council and was part of the team planning for the eclipse in Cornwall.

“We were planning for issues such as campsites, food and water and I was on the team that was part of the emergency planning.

“I remember that there were all sorts of scenarios that we were planning for, for the influx of people coming down to Cornwall to see the eclipse – but in the end nobody came.

“There were plans put in place for the water system not being able to cope with the number of people and water bowsers were ordered. We designated emergency campsites as there were fears that there would not be enough space at campsites across Cornwall to take all the people we expected. The whole of the Royal Cornwall Showground was designated as a campsite, we ordered the water bowsers and showers as well.

“I remember driving past the showground at the time of the eclipse and there were three tents there.

“There had been a real feeling that it could be a nightmare – the message started getting out that there could be enormous numbers of people coming to Cornwall to see the eclipse, and I think in the end people said “I can’t be bothered to go”.

“In reality, outside of the normal traffic that we have in the summer, there was no impact for people down here at all.

“I remember afterwards we all thought that the message that there could be chaos had been so effective that nobody came.

“We did have a number of people coming forward beforehand to hold street parties or rock concerts to tie in with the eclipse, but nobody went to those either.

“There had been a lot of planning but it was all done for nothing in the end. It didn’t help that it was cloudy – I went to St Breock Downs to see it and it was a bit of a damp squib really.”

So would the same sort of planning happen today? “In terms of planning for major activity it is different today as we have the unitary council rather than six districts and one county council which all had to be co-ordinated and work together.

“We would still plan for all those sorts of things, but it would be easier with the single council and we have much more experience now.

“The Olympic torch relay is a good example, it was well organised and we had a lot of people come along to that and there were no issues. We are better at dealing with those sorts of things now.

“There had never been an eclipse in Cornwall before so we didn’t really know what to expect and we had to make sure we planned for everything – I think in the debrief we thought we erred too far on the side of risk. But you plan for the worst and hope for the best.

“An awful lot of planning was put in and we might have gone overboard. But I think everybody just breathed a sigh of relief that the end of the world didn’t happen.

“However I would never say that it was the wrong thing to do to do that planning, we needed to do that planning just in case.

“It would have been nice to have seen the eclipse though.”