The St Austell Bay Resilient Regeneration (StARR) project is an innovative partnership scheme aiming to reduce flood risk in the St Austell Bay area and help boost investment.

The scheme is in its initial stages and ecological surveys are planned across the area in the next few weeks to test if different places are suitable to provide flood mitigation solutions.

The StARR project involves a number of partners working together including the Environment Agency, led by Cornwall Council.

A particular focus is to mitigate flooding in Par and St Blazey where communities have suffered from frequent flooding, with 27 recorded incidents since 1959. The worst incident in 1970 flooded 80 properties, and more recently 55 properties flooded in 2010.