CALLINGTON Town Council is exploring the option of selling off its land for housing development adjacent to the town park to fund two high priority projects — if it can get planning permission.

The two areas of land, which could accommodate around five houses, have been held in reserve for decades, but town councillors believe the time may have come to convert them to much-needed cash.

Members of the council's finance and purposes committee voted last week to explore the possibility of gaining outline planning consent for the sizeable plots next to the Saltash Road Recreation Ground and Aysshton Gardens Car Park.

Deputy portreeve Karen Gold, who is a member of the committee, said current projects included redevelopments of Saltash Road Recreation Ground and the town hall and there were not as many grants around as there once were.

A major £250,000 funding application to the lottery to put a second floor on the town hall failed and a bid submitted in March for Cornwall Council playbuilder funding for the park had also been unsuccessful.

She said: 'Money is getting less and less because of the economic climate, and the town council, like everyone else, has to be careful. We have to look at what is best for Callington.

'The park is deteriorating and is subject to vandalism which is not good for the people who live around it and the town hall needs to be brought up to scratch so more people will use it.'

She said the two vacant areas of land, which people used for walking their dogs, could not really be used for anything else and had always been kept as a contingency plan.

'The question is how long do you keep this contingency when there are things which are desperately in need of refurbishment?'

Members of the finance committee said the land was often subject to complaints due to the perceived lack of maintenance which the grounds maintenance staff acknowledged. There was a reluctance to maintain this land as effectively as other park land due to the amount of dog mess that was left behind by inconsiderate dog owners.

Any land that was sold would become a capital receipt and money raised from this could only be used for capital projects.

Town clerk Vernon Anderson said he believed the land once had planning permission for housing as it formed part of a larger area which became Aysshton Gardens. The land was formerly allotments and a replacement allotment site was created in Haye Road.

He said he would be talking to planning officers at Cornwall Council to see what the likelihood of getting planning permission on that land would be. If it was granted, councillors would have to decide whether to retain the land or sell off the plots to fund other projects.

He said: 'At the moment we are just exploring the possibilities. It is difficult to know exactly what money would be needed for the two redevelopment projects because we are carrying a consultation at the moment on the park, but it is likely to be somewhere in the region of £250,000.

'The original town hall scheme had to be scaled down and some accessibility improvements have been made through the 'One Stop Shop' funding, but changes to the layout inside were planned and a kitchen revamp, which alone could cost £30,000.'

l A consultation day/ play event is being held in Callington Town Hall on August 12 where children can say what they would like to see in Saltash Road Recreation Ground.

Ideas include re-landscaping the park to provide a natural amphitheatre for events and hills and slopes for children to play on. The day is very hands-on and will include model-making. Anyone wishing to attend should call the town clerk Vernon Anderson on 01579 384039.