'WE are open for business and looking forward to visitors' is the message from Kingsand as work continues on repairs after the extensive damage caused by the stormy seas in February.

All roads in and around Kingsand are now open, and all the businesses near and on the seafront are open for customers. The businesses include the Devonport Inn and Boat House Cafe along The Cleave, the area which took the brunt of the storms.

However, Girt beach will remain closed to the public for health and safety reasons as it is directly below the badly-damaged Clock Tower and Institute, which is still covered in scaffolding.

Cleave Beach and Cawsand Beach will be open as normal.

Cornwall Councillor George Trubody said no work was being carried out on the Clock Tower and Institute throughout the whole of the Easter school holidays.

'The local community very much hopes that people will visit Kingsand and Cawsand as it works to get back to normality,' he said.

'We need a good summer now to dry everything out.'

Cllr Trubody said Cornwall Council had made available funding towards the cost of the new seawall in front of the Institute.

'The council is in negotiations with engineers and the plans for the new coastal defence are about to be drawn up and should be completed soon,' he said.

Anne Carne, a trustee of the Institute, said: 'These are highly-complicated plans as the sea defence is the lower part of the Institute building itself and we are working in conjunction with the insurers and the council. There is a temporary hold-up in the repairs to the building while all the agencies involved in the reconstruction discuss the best way forward.

'We are pleased that the building is still standing, but the roof is still very unstable and another storm could bring down the fascias and slates.'

Mrs Carne added that the trustees were grateful to everyone in the community for their support.

Cawsand Congregational Church, who along with other organisations are concerned that they do not gain financially from the Institute's loss of earnings, has pledged £1,000, to be reviewed when the building is back on its feet again. The Plymouth Gilbert and Sullivan Society has indicated they will donate all their profits from the next production to the Institute.

There are still up to six householders unable to get back into their homes along The Cleave due to the extensive damage caused by the mountainous seas which crashed onto them, and around half a dozen more are living in their properties while the repairs carry on around them.