Falmouth's coastguard station will remain open around the clock, the government announced yesterday.

The station had been earmarked to become a daylight-hours only operation under original plans put forward by the Marine and Coastguard Agency.

The suggestion prompted an outcry in the town, with the Packet collection a petition of 7,459 signatures - the equivalent of a quarter of the population of Falmouth - calling for the coastguards to remain open 24 hours a day.

After protests from across the country at the original proposals, the government agreed to look again at the modernisation programme.

A new finalised set of plans were revealed in Parliament by minister Mike Penning yesterday afternoon.

He told MPs: ““After many years of uncertainty, these reforms provide a clear plan for the future of Her Majesty's Coastguard.

“They will deliver a resilient and fully networked national rescue coordination service. They will make much better use of the talents and skills of our Coastguards and will provide more interesting and rewarding work with better pay.“The UK coastguard has a great heritage. This is a blueprint for a 21st century Coastguard that commands even greater respect and it will provide an organisation of which coastguards themselves and all of us can be justly proud.”

Falmouth will be one of eight coastguard centres across the UK, supported by maritime operation centres in Fareham and Dover.

Current coastguard stations at Forth, Clyde, Great Yarmouth, Liverpool, Thames, Swansea, Brixham and Portland will all close by 2015.

For more details on the story, and local reaction, please see our website thepacket.co.uk, and next week's edition of the paper.