AROUND 150 people visited Tavistock Town Hall on Saturday, to see at first hand proposals for the market area and enhancement of the town.

Town councillors and staff were there to talk to residents about the authority's five year strategic plan, the ideas for the market proposed by Mercian Developments and any other matters they felt important, including the idea of a public-funded celebration of the royal wedding in April.

Town mayor Cllr David Whitcomb said the open day was 'very well attended'.

He said: 'Generally there was a good reaction from people regarding what the council was doing.

'There were two or three adverse comments from people wondering why we were spending tax payers' money on celebrating the royal wedding — you will always get those who moan whatever you do, but generally I think the reactions were good.

'In fact some people said we should have these sort of events every six months.

'Personally I am very much in favour of letting the people of Tavistock know as much as possible about what we are doing.

'If we give people as much information as we can about what we are doing and trying to do, at least they can see we are not just sitting on our bottoms doing nothing.'

Cllr Whitcomb said several traders attended to see what ideas had been proposed for the pannier market — suggestions have included extending trading into market road, glazing over the perimeter road around the market and having decked areas by the river.

Cllr Whitcomb said: 'People didn't like the idea of closing off Market Street because of parking issues, but we do need more room for more stall holders.'

Questionnaires regarding the market proposals, and a separate questionnaire regarding the royal wedding celebrations, for which the council has set aside £5,000, were filled out on the day, with some people choosing to take the forms away with them.

These need to be returned to the council by February 5.

Deputy town clerk Jan Smallacombe said she was 'pleasantly surprised' by how many people attended the open day.

She said the council would be evaluating the responses over the next few weeks and considering the results once all the forms have been returned.