Thanks but it would seem that Centos 5.8 does not have an /etc/init
directory only an /etc/init.d

But thanks to your hint I have found the command that does the work

# cat runsvdir-start
#!/bin/sh

PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin

exec env - PATH=$PATH \
runsvdir -P /etc/service 'log:
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................'

Now all I need to do is turn this into an init.d script