CALLINGTON is faring well compared to many other Cornish towns, the portreeve told councillors and members of the public at last week’s annual parish meeting.

Portreeve and Cornwall Councillor for Callington Andrew Long praised the work of the town council for surviving a tough year.

He said: ‘It has been a busy, interesting and tough year for Callington. We have faced some severe challenges over the last 12 months and will face more in the next 12.

‘One thing I have noticed with my Cornwall Council hat on is how well Callington is doing in comparison to other Cornish towns. There are 37 public toilets across Cornwall that are set for closure and ours is not one of them because we as a town council had the foresight to take them on ourselves.

‘The one hour free parking in the town with Cornwall Council and the Co-operative is showing early signs of being very positive. It is the only Cornwall Council run car park in the county with a period of free parking during the day time.

‘We have a good reputation among other towns and have had a number of visits from other town councils to see how we manage our finances and other council business.

‘There are more tough times ahead as the cuts are continuing to hit — most roads are now on emergency repair only — and there could be another round of cuts to come. My view is they haven’t just cut the fat off the services, they have cut the meat and soon the bones of the services we have relied upon. It is a case of we could sit back and do nothing or we can be proactive about it and Callington Town Council has been proactive and taken on a number of the services. I’m really pleased with how hard all the councillors and council staff have worked.’

During the public open session people raised concerns about parking and traffic in the town and the ongoing issue of the town’s mural trail.

Resident Alison Dawes had seen the council’s appeal for opinions on whether they should spend money to restore the murals or remove them.

She said: ‘My personal opinion is that I like the murals. Obviously some need to be restored and repainted and I know it would be quite time consuming and expensive but I would like to see them stay.’

In response Cllr Mark Smith said: ‘We recently went round and audited the murals. One has been destroyed by the property owner putting a vent in the middle of it. We know the Secret Pasty Factory and the one at the end of Fore Street both would require a huge sum of money to repair that the council just hasn’t got. We are doing bits that we can afford. We had one repainted and re-varnished but it has since unfortunately been vandalised. Our plan is to refresh the ones we can afford to do and looking at grant funding to help with the larger ones.’

Cllr Smith said some of the paintings had copy rights on them and one artist wanted to charge £5,000 to repaint a mural. He said the mural at Tesco had been removed by the supermarket, despite being in talks with the council to renew it.

He said: ‘We were in talks with Tesco and said we would provide the funds and the information to re-do it but Tesco decided to remove it. We have since planned to work with the school and get the art department at Ginsters to print one onto aluminium that would last longer but I don’t think Tesco is interested. I would be extremely surprised if anything was to go back there.’

Other concerns that came up were Church Street being used as a rat run, issues with street lighting not working on the corner of Launceston Road and Skitta Close, which was said to be due to the developers not finishing certain parts of the Section 106 agreement, and issues of dog fouling and littering in the town.