WORK to save harbour walls in “desperate state of repair” and a pier “held up by fresh air alone” is underway.

Ceredigion County Council has gone out to tender to find a contractor to undertake investigation work around Aberaeron harbour where coastal defence works are urgently needed.

In order to get a full picture of the scale work needed to safeguard what has been called the town’s “umbilical cord” by local member Cllr Elizabeth Evans, ground work and surveys are to be carried out along the coastal defences.

Contractors have until 7 September to bid for the tender, with an estimated award date of October 1, 2020.

Preliminary work on the coast defence scheme was started in early 2019 with local concern that parts of the harbour area, including the historic South Pier, needed significant repair.

Cllr Evans said: “Ceredigion are preparing a bid to the Senedd for funding to undertake the harbour defence work.

“This funding is urgently needed to strengthen the harbour walls but also to defend the town against a rising tide.

“The harbour walls are currently in a desperate state of repair, and South Pier is being held up by fresh air alone.

“The potential flooding of the town is very real without this work and we have seen an increase in the severity of storms in recent years.”

A biodiversity risk assessment will also be required with a provisional date to state work on site of 15 October and a final ground investigation report prepared before Christmas.

“Aberaeron came into existence because of the harbour, and it is our economic umbilical cord. It is vital to the towns future prosperity that funding to start work is forthcoming, once all the ground investigation work is complete.

“I very much hope that the Welsh Government understand the urgency of this work, and that there is no further delay in obtaining this long overdue funding,” said Cllr Evans.

In February 2019 a Ceredigion County Council spokesman said that Welsh Government grant funding had bee awarded to design a coastal defence scheme for Aberaeron Harbour and South beach “as outline in the Project Appraisal Report that was completed in 2014.”