OFFICERS at St Helens Sea Cadets who feared they might be forced to abandon ship have earned a reprieve.

The mounting cost of vandalism attacks at the cadets' headquarters, TS Scimitar in Volunteer Street, had put the future of the unit in doubt. Now though they look to be heading for calmer waters after a Preston-based security firm came to their rescue.

Nine separate theft and vandalism incidents at TS Scimitar in the past year - highlighted in the Star - had put an unbearable strain on the group's finances. Officers decided that the only solution was to fit an alarm system but dwindling funds meant there was no way they could afford it.

Commanding officer Lieutenant John Windle said : "It was getting ridiculous. We would no sooner get the place back to normal after one attack than the culprits would strike again and we would have to find more money to fix the damage. The cadets were getting really disheartened because they were doing their best to raise money only to see it being wasted by a bunch of yobs.

"Finally, we realised we had to get the building alarmed but we couldn't afford to do it ourselves and hoped that someone might fit us an alarm free as a gesture of goodwill."

That's when Preston-based Homesafe Alarms stepped in. Sales manager Mark Gerrard said: "We are currently opening a new branch to cover the St Helens area and decided to fit the system at TS Scimitar - which would normally cost more than £1,000 - free as a gesture of goodwill to the local community."

Lieutenant Windle added: "I am immensely grateful to Homesafe for fitting this alarm. The cadets who regularly attend our unit get so much enjoyment out of it and I hope the new alarm system will mean that we can start concentrating on running the unit properly instead of worrying about how to pay for the next bout of vandalism."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.