Dartmouth Boatfloat basin could become unusable within some two years unless the town forks out up to £30,000 to get it dredged.

Parts of the Boatfloat are now lying under three feet of mud and the problem is getting worse, its town council owners have been warned.

The council is already faced with paying to get a survey of the Boatfloat walls carried out to ensure they don't collapse if the mud is dredged.

And, ultimately, it is hoped to install a sill at the entrance to stop it from drying out at low tide and then install a pontoon system for the 80 or so small boats that moor there. But town councillor Chris Smith told members of the council's corporate property committee: 'The most important thing is that we clear the silt as soon as possible because if it continues it will be unusable in a couple of years.'

Dartmouth Town Council gets an income of around £10,000 a year renting out moorings in the Boatfloat.

It has been looking at getting the basin dredged for at least the last eight years.

It commissioned an investigation to look at the make-up of the mud two years ago to ensure there would be no pollution problems when it came to getting it shifted. The council is currently looking at how much it will cost to get the mud partially removed from around the base of the basin walls to ensure that they are stable.

Town councillor Rob Lyon explained it was planned to get a surveyor to carry out an inspection 'to find out whether the mud can be extracted without the walls falling down.'

Town clerk Chris Horan said that the latest estimate for dredging the Boatfloat was around £30,000.