AN AREA between Tavistock and Callington has been chosen for one of the pilot projects in a new initiative to revive market and coastal towns.

It is one of nine pilots to be carried out across the South-West with the aim of defining a strategy for the towns and villages within their areas over the next 10-20 years.

The local pilot area will include Callington, the Bere Peninsula and the villages around Tavistock.

Cherida Fletcher, one of the organisers at the South-West Regional Development Agency, said: 'the project leaders have been given around £40,000 by the agency to develop a plan for the future of the local economy, the environment and cultural activities.'

An open day is being arranged on March 3 to discuss the Tamar Valley pilot, probably to be held in a local school.

A full statement on the initiative is expected to be made by the SWRDA on March 30, at the end of the pilot. Money will then be allocated to carry out the agreed plans.

The promoters of the scheme are the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Calstock Development Trust, West Devon Environmental Project, Caradon District Council, Tavistock Forward and the SWRDA.

Tavistock Forward, the town regeneration group, is separately finalising its own action plan, after close scrutiny of 166 key points raised by participants.

It hopes this plan will converge with the initiatives of the SWRDA and the government.

The plan will incorporate ideas expressed in around 100 responses to a questionnaire published in the 'Times' and will outline a vision for the town in 10 years' time. The next step will be taken at a group meeting in the Bedford Hotel on January 24.

Chairman John Taylor said: 'our aim is to get ahead of the game and ensure that we get the maximum funding.'

In parallel, local authorities are lining up to claim a place in the government's market towns initiative, announced in the Rural White Paper last year and being developed by the Countryside Agency.

Graham Wall, chief planning officer for the Dartmoor Park National Authority, said he would be talking to the agency about including Chagford and Princetown, among other moorland market towns, in the scheme. Officials of Tavistock and Okehampton have also expressed an interest in joining this scheme.