THE new owners of Watchet Marina have successfully repaired its gate so that it can be operated manually.

The gate had not worked properly for several years despite promises by the former operator to replace it.

But Western Marinas Ltd took over the harbour last September and quickly set about dredging mud and restoring the hydraulic gate.

A spokesperson said: “We have dredged a significant area of Watchet Marina and the marina gate is currently operating in manual mode.

“We are getting very close to switching over to automatic mode, but we will not quite be there in time for the Easter weekend.”

The spokesperson said marina staff and the dredging team would be operating the gate for every tide this week.