Falmouth’s taxi marshals service has been given a one month reprieve after the owner of the security |company which supplies them offered to fund the service for the next four weeks, free of charge.

The marshals, which have been credited for slashing incidents of late night crime and disorder on The Moor, were due to carry out their final patrol last Saturday after the town council pulled the plug on the service because of a lack of financial support from pubs, clubs and taxi companies.

They will be back patrolling the taxi rank this weekend, though, after John Richards, owner of Infinitus Security, made his offer to the town council, believing the service was worth saving.

“Hopefully in the next month I can then either get some sponsorship or fix up a couple of people to help,” said Mr Richards. “If I can recoup 75 per cent of the cost I will carry on and foot the rest of the bill. It would be nice if I could break even, but I am willing to fund a quarter, maybe a half, of the cost until the end of the tax year and then I can look at it again.

“The response I have had to the scheme is brilliant so I thought I can give a little back to the community. I’m in the position where I can staff it for a month at my own cost.”

Looking ahead into the next financial year, Mr Richards is willing to run the marshal service, a month at a time to allow funding to be found in stages, rather than a year at a time.

“If taxi drivers just paid £3 a month and other businesses donated maybe £5 or £10 a month, it would help,” said Mr Richards.

Anyone willing to contribute can call Mr Richards on 01326 379999 or visit www.infinitussecurity.com.