Residents angry at cuts to bus services in Falmouth vented their frustrations at the town council's drop-in surgery on Friday.

Over the three hours, at least two dozen people attended and raised their concerns over the decision by bus company the First Group to make changes to a number of services.

The changes, which came into force this week, affect the 83, 84, 88/88A/88B services while a new service, U1, has been introduced and runs between the university campuses in Falmouth and Penryn.

Not all students are happy with the changes, though. Patricia Thornton and Susan Gibson study at Tremough, but live at the Maritime Studios in Pendennis Rise and will now have to pick up the bus at Woodlane.

“It is not a huge difference, but it is if you are carrying things,” said Patricia. “Also, the Falmouth Hotel regularly has lots of visitors who use the buses, but now there isn't one.”

Angela Wright, who attended to represent some of the elderly people who live along Cliff Road and will be affected, said: “They cannot afford taxis into town and are not mobile enough to get in in any other way,” she said.

Town clerk, Mark Williams told residents that town and county councillor, Candy Atherton is on the case and is hoping to arrange a meeting with representatives from First.

He said: “We, as a town council expected to have been consulted on this. There may be a need to reduce the commercial services, but is there a compromise?

“As a town council we are looking to see if there is a solution. What the town council cannot do is subsidise a commercial bus service, but we can look at our shuttle bus service although we cannot do that until April as we don't have the budget until then.

“There are some difficult decisions for the council to make over the next couple of months over its budget for next year.”

Councillor Diana Merrett said: “It is a big on-going problem that we are trying to deal with so please bear with us.”