As businesses in the exclusion zone remain closed for a second day, including Pendennis Shipyard and Balaena (A&P Falmouth) yards, the wider economic effects should not be overlooked. Toby Parkins, President of the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, said he completely recognised that the safety of people had to be the prime consideration, but he also highlighted the impact such large-scale disruption had on local and regional businesses.
He explained: "Human safety is absolutely paramount and we get that the authorities have to take a safe and careful approach when dealing with ordnance like this. That's the reality.
"We also have to recognise that while residents are being affected and evacuated, the exclusion zone will also affect businesses. People who are moved out of their homes, it affects their day to day life and this in turn affects the wider communities – quite simply they may not be able to get to work."
Toby said the closures of businesses – including shops, cafes, manufacturing firms – in the exclusion zone would have a much wider effect than people may realise.
He said: "Those businesses will be in a supply chain. Services and products are going in and out all the time – that all comes to a halt and that delay will have a lot of knock-on effects such as output.
"The effects will be felt not just on those businesses in the exclusion zone, it will affect a much larger number of businesses.
"People don't always recognise these knock-on effects in the supply chains. It soon racks up the economic impact – and it will be a noticeable impact on some firms.
"The knock-on effect can spread to other areas miles away from the site of the situation. It will be having a much wider impact than people first think – you don't have to actually be in Falmouth to be affected by this.
"There will be primary delays as well as secondary and tertiary delays. It will affect cash flow, delays making purchases – the effects go on for several months.
"Businesses have daily running costs, overheads, staffing costs and any delay has an impact. Payments may be missed as some firms may only have limited capacity to weather a shut down. It could go on to affect monthly cash flows as there is a cumulative impact which can spread.
"This isn't the end of the world, but these small incidents can have impacts which can cause longer-term problems. It puts additional pressures on businesses you wouldn't immediately expect to be affected by this.
"Understandably, we're really concerned about how this can affect businesses and as a business community we would be wishing for a swift end to this current situation."
The device is due to be moved and safely disposed of today. Follow our live blog here.
Business Impact of Falmouth Bomb Should Not Be Underestimated