Lifeline for future of village fishing industry

The fishing industry in a Cornish village has been thrown a lifeline following the closure of Plymouth Fish Market.

Previously the Plymouth market operated a collection and auction service for fish landed at Polperro and other small ports in the area.

The port's only remaining trawler, the Rebecca V, has since been forced to take its catch to Plymouth for it to be transported by lorry to Brixham market.

But Polperro Harbour Trust has now bought its own refrigerated van so that fish landed in the village can instead be taken to a distribution depot in Roche.

Peter Hickey, the chairperson of the Polperro Harbour Trust, said the closure of the fish market in Plymouth meant the end of the collection service from the village.

"As a result some of our bigger vessels that used to land and had their fish picked up, had to drop off at other ports so we lost them altogether.

"The purchase of the van gives us the opportunity to get the larger vessels back in the harbour."

Mr Hickey said the trust, which is now 130 years old, was established and funded by a small duty charged on fish landed at Polperro.

"It's our heritage, it's what the village is all about, so the trustees have been working quite hard to keep commercial fishing in the village and help keep it viable," he said.

"The fishing industry has been under a lot of pressure for years now with catches going down, and quotas and Brexit and all that.

"So it did feel like another nail in the coffin of commercial fishing, which is why we are pleased to turn that around with the purchase of the van.

"The catches are going up and we're putting more fuel through the fuel facilities in the harbour so everything we hoped for is working," said Mr Hickey.

The specialist van has been co-funded by the Marine Management Organisation but the trust said it would need to fundraise to keep it in service.

Polperro fisherman Chris Puckey said it would help preserve the village as a proper port.

"If we didn't have the van in five, ten years time we'd see all fancy white yachts in here and that's not what people come to see," he said.

"There's been hundreds of years fishing from Polperro, so it would be sad to see it go just because we couldn't transport fish"

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