Falmouth harbour officials have been accused of failing to help a local boatman who is desperate for a commercial mooring for his new vessel.

John and Fiona Pill have recently bought a new boat, The Tamar Belle, to operate alongside their other vessel, The Princessa, but claim Falmouth Harbour Commissioners are being obstructive when it comes to finding them a mooring. The couple have been offered use of a visitor’s mooring for the season, but they are demanding a much cheaper, commercial mooring.

“I know for a fact there are two commercial moorings that have not been used for the last two years,” said Mr Pill. “We are the last Cornish family running a business in tourism (in Falmouth) and we should be helped somewhere along the way.”

Mr Pill, who is currently restoring his new boat at Falmouth Marina, says he had a visitor’s mooring five years ago and was charged £900 for the sea son, but is now facing a bill of £3,850 for the season. He pays £600 for his mooring for the Princessa, off Prince of Wales Pier.

“At the end of the day, we have invested a lot of money in this vessel and we will be taking two people off the dole in the summer,” said Mr Pill. “I just feel we are being penalised, we are only asking for a mooring. I think it is the name, they don’t want to be dealing with us.

“If it was £1,000 I would not moan, but nearly £4,000 before we start is just too much. They don’t want to help locals.”

Barry Buist, leisure services manager for Falmouth Harbour Commissioners, said: “We treat everyone equally in managing requests for moorings and we have strict processes in place for the allocation of moorings through a waiting list system which all commercial operators are fully aware of. Where we can be helpful to businesses we seek to do so but moorings are always in high demand and there are no suitable spaces currently available.

“No approach was made to FHC to enquire about the potential availability of moorings prior to the operator acquiring his new vessel. However, as an interim measure and in order that this operator can have access to a mooring of sufficient size we have said that we would allow him to use one of Falmouth’s 19 visitor moorings. To be fair to all harbour users this would be charged at the normal visitor mooring rate.”