The award winning group of volunteers who welcome cruise ship passengers to Falmouth have waded into the row over dredging, after the 1,250 passenger Marina cancelled her call yesterday.

Saying that the cancellation cost the town an estimated £150,000 in lost business and left coaches due to spread out across the county empty, a spokesman for Falmouth Cruise Ship Ambassadors said that "economic sense must surely prevail".

Members of the group were due to meet passengers on the quayside, and say that the bad weather meant she was unable to tender passengers ashore from out in the bay.

Phil Boddy, the group’s honourary secretary, said: “Yet another cruise ship aborts a planned day call to Falmouth - and Oceania Cruises have said they will not be back. What an utter nonsense this sad and sorry state of affairs has become due entirely to the lack of dredging in what is claimed to be the third largest natural harbour in the world.

“If you landed from another planet you would never believe a small minority would be allowed to dictate to such an extent to the overwhelming majority in favour of the dredging. The fact that we live in one of the poorest regions in Europe is being completely ignored when our local economy would benefit so significantly.

“Today's aborted call alone has lost an estimated £150,000 in much needed local and county revenue. We would all like to live in a perfect world but sometimes economic sense must surely prevail. It's totally and utterly ridiculous.”

Established in 2006 the Falmouth Cruise Ship Ambassadors consists of a group of volunteers who want to improve the experience of visitors from all over the world.

A spokesman for Prestige Cruise Holiday, said that while today’s scheduled call was cancelled due to poor weather conditions in Falmouth Bay, "there’s no ongoing impact on future calls".