CALLINGTON residents have just a few weeks to make their views known on proposed highways improvements for the town centre.

The official Cormac consultation will finish on December 31 and Callington Cornwall's councillor Andrew Long says it is 'vitally important' the whole of the town takes part in the process.

He has made the call following the publishing of the revised Cormac proposals for the usage of the Section 106 monies received following the Tesco store opening in August 2010 which has to be used to enhance the town.

'This is the public's chance to influence the final works that are done in the town in the spring of next year,' he said.

'The majority of the proposals are a reflection of the regeneration working group set up last year to analyse the responses from the 600-plus people who took part in my consultation and I am pleased that Cormac has taken the views of these people into account.

'There are still controversial parts of the proposal and I personally disagree on the positioning of the proposed controlled pedestrian crossing over the A388 but, like the others, I will be using the process to make my point again,' said Cllr Long.

The councillor said that although the crossing and the widening of the footway in Church Street had not been included in the working party recommendations, Cornwall Council had included them for safety reasons.

The crossing was also part of the original 106 agreement and supported by the town council.

Cllr Long said he had written to the author of the document to express his concern regarding the conclusions set out by Cormac which said the crossing had overwhelming support from the people of Callington.

He said:?'The issue of the crossing did not have overwhelming support or, for that matter, overwhelming opposition, and I believe that this should be made clear to the people of the community.

'As I have said before, I do support a crossing but not in the position shown, but do feel that it should be made clear to the residents that the first conclusion was not correct.'

His view is that the crossing should be on the Saltash Road side rather than on Back Lane on the Launceston Road side, allowing better access to Fore Street and to the trading centre of Callington

To take part in the consultation residents can either fill in a response form in the town council offices (where the designs are on show, between 9am and 2pm Monday to Friday), or reply online by logging on to http://www.cornwall.gov.uk">www.cornwall.gov.uk and proceeding to the Highways Consultation page.

Cllr Long said he would be meeting highways officers this week to review the initial responses to the consultation.