There has been growing concerns regarding the Compass Point along Bude’s clifftop, as years of coastal erosion and exposure to harsh weather conditions has left the future of the town’s beloved ‘Pepper Pot’ in doubt.

Bude-Stratton Town Council has been pursuing the process of moving the structure, in order to preserve it for the future. Due to it being a listed structure the ‘Historic England’ process has had to be followed.

The attention was initially brought forward to the town council in February 2019 and a working group of councillors and council employees formed to address the problem.

One of Cornwall Council’s heritage officers wrote a specification for the Heritage Impact Assessment Document which is required by Historic England.

The document can only be produced by specialist companies and Bude-Stratton Town Council invited tenders for the work.

A single tender came forward at a cost of just below £15,000. As there was no funding put aside for this, the town council have had to lobby Cornwall Council to find the money, which they have now set aside in next year’s budget and will be available from April 2020.

Cornwall Councillor for Bude, Peter La Broy has been spearheading this process on behalf of the town is hoping to accelerate the project as soon as possible. He said: “I am currently trying to find a way of bringing this forward. Once the document is complete, it will provide a specification for moving the building along with recommendations for where it should be relocated.

“I don’t think it should take too long for the document to be made, once it is in place we will go onto the next stage which will be a planning application for the relocation and the inevitable search for funding to do the job.”