ONE of Callington's 'old and tired' play parks could get a facelift thanks to the promise of match funding from the town council and a partnership with a Duchy College student.

Callington Town Council's outside services committee agreed last week to match fund up to £10,000 for the re-vamp of the Tamar Close play park as part of a project being co-ordinated by student George du Plessis, who is also employed by the council as a member of the outside services team.

George, who is studying for a BSc in rural business management at Duchy College, is taking on the challenge of applying for funding, consulting with users of the park, choosing replacement equipment and overseeing the building work as part of his coursework.

The council will match whatever funding he manages to secure, up to £10,000.

George said: 'We are going to improve the whole area. Our aim is to modernise it with low maintenance play equipment, and we're trying to make it sustainable — we're thinking about the long term.

'The first step is to develop a plan of what we're looking to do, and then we will apply to organisations for funding.

'We need to start getting some community support so we're looking at possibly creating a questionnaire and maybe going door to door to houses around the park to get people's views. We've only just started the ball rolling so over the next few weeks we will start to put some plans together.

'This is the first project I have started and I'm really looking forward to it.'

Cllr Karen Gold, vice-chair of the outside services committee, will be supporting George and helping him as much as she can throughout the process.

She said: 'The wooden play equipment at the park is quite old and tired and has seen better days. The picnic bench in particular is in an awful state and the fencing needs replacing — the whole area needs re-doing.

'It will be wonderful to see the play area revamped for the youngsters. I don't think much has been done to the park since it was built — it has been left for quite a few years. We would be delighted to see that park re-done.'

Although it is early days, George said he hoped to get things moving by Christmas and hopes to have the new play park finished by Summer next year.