GOOD FRIDAY MODEL YACHTING 2024 -  AN APPEAL
Channel: Cornishpastyman
Date: 29/03/2024

One of St Ives' popular traditions is under threat. Councillor Luke Rogers highlights the issue,  which the lead article from the St Ives Times & Echo 22 March 2024 explains.

SILT LEVEL THREAT TO GOOD FRIDAY BOATING CONTINUES TO GROW

As Easter approaches the tradition of sailing model boats at Consols Pool on Good Friday will once again be in the minds of the many locals who meet there on the day. Those charged with managing the event, for those few hours once a year, face a perennial worry – silt.

Built at the end of the 19th century the pond at Consols was designed to ‘flush’ the town’s ‘loo’. Sanitation being what it was a century ago the Stennack River was the town’s open sewer. Everything, including all the domestic waste from the cottages in the valley was thrown in the stream to be washed down and out to sea. In periods of dry weather, there often was insufficient water in the river to do the job. In these circumstances, the sluice gate at Consols was opened and a flood of water would rush down the stream clearing the sewage and detritus. Much of the water that runs into the pond comes from old mine adits, drainage for the workings, and this is the source of the silt. Without, the sluice being opened on a regular basis it settles and accumulates in the pond.

With the introduction of a sewage system and refuse collections to St Ives in the 1930s there was no reason to continue flushing the river so the pond lost its original purpose and silt began to accumulate. In recent decades there have been many occasions when, by one means or another, the silt has been cleared or reduced. But it is an expensive operation with an estimated costs being in the region of £20,000. This year there is very little water above the silt level, just enough to sail model boats. As it has been doing over the last few years, St Ives Town Council has been investigating ways of clearing the silt. On the day it has also had a man in a boat to recover the model boats that get stuck at the edges of the pond or in the weeds. This year the water is too shallow and the silt too deep to risk a punt in the pond. The silt has also become a hazard, acting like quicksand.

“We have done a bit of tidying up around the edges of Consols Pool,”  Council’s Building and Facilities Manager, Paul Wood told the Facilities Committee last Thursday evening (March 14th). “We’ve decided not to put out a support boat this year. The reason for that is, we’ve been up to check the depth of the silt. We’ve actually had a man in the pool with a harness on. Basically, you get in and you can’t move. There’s no bottom. So, if you imagine you’re in a boat and you start getting these small boats and you go in, even with a lifejacket, you go under the silt and there’s nothing, the silt is so high. So we’ve decided, health and safety wise, not to put our boat in,” he added.

“We are going to take some long poles and we’ll do what we can with long poles.” He added that if boats could not be recovered with long poles at the event there was a safe method of recovering them later.  

The Town Council will also be at Consols Pool on Good Friday, leafletting the public to ascertain if some volunteer support is available to help with the silt problem and the event in future years: “It would be encouraging if as many councillors as possible could get along to talk to people who are passionate about the event, engage with them and talk about their ideas and what the future of the event might be,” said St Ives Town Clerk, Lou Dwelly.  She added that there had been ‘quite a positive meeting’ with the Environment Agency. “I think it is worth another go at writing to the Environment Agency. It may be that the functional importance of that pool may be getting to a point where they might be thinking of doing something. Although I don’t think that will be any time soon.”