NEW consultants appointed to lead the way for the Callington and Kelly Bray Neighbourhood Plan attended their first resident’s meeting on Monday.

Consultants LRM Planning and Clifton Emery Design have been jointly commissioned to support the preparation of the document.

The two teams combined their expertise to put together a successful bid that won unanimous support from Callington Town Council.

The neighbourhood plan will consider areas for new homes and employment space to meet future needs and identify the infrastructure and other improvements that will help the area develop over the next 20 years.

Darren Summerfield, project lead from LRM Planning alongside Neil Emery from Clifton Emery Design, met with the steering group on Monday and said that the teams were keen to ‘reboot and refresh’ the project and involve people from the local community.

‘The community’s views need to be at the heart of a neighbourhood plan and the focus of the work to begin with will be understanding the important issues for local people and finding out how they would like Callington and Kelly Bray to develop over the coming years.’

He added that the team’s first task would be putting together a consultation programme in the near future for local residents to attend

Work will commence early 2018 and the project is expected to take around 12 to 18 months to complete.

Town clerk Helen Dowdall said: ‘We met the new consultants at the steering group on Monday. They were appointed before Christmas after Cornwall Council had expressed concerns that the previous consultants were going in a different direction for the neighbourhood plan.

‘We are really pleased with the new consultants’ enthusiasm and our confidence has grown and we are really excited to see the neighbourhood plan strengthen — their new eyes will help rejuvenate the project.’

Portreeve Mark Smith added that since the neighbourhood plan was adopted, the project’s momentum had slowed and he encouraged more local residents to be a part of the steering group.

‘We need to reinvigorate the community — this has been bubbling under slowly but now it needs to come back to the boil. It needs to be full of community ideas and have the community engaged. The more people that are involved the more of a rounded vision we have for Callington.

‘I can see it is going to be a solid document that will help to protect Callington.’

Anyone who would like to join the steering group is asked to contact Mrs Dowdall on 01579 384039.