STUDENTS from Plymouth College of Art will be joining the celebrations commemorating the 900th anniversary of the granting of Tavistock?s market charter by using the town as inspiration for design projects next year. Cllr Caroline Keane told last week?s meeting of the council?s finance committee that the college had expressed interest in some of its students designing new mayoral robes for the town?s first civic citizen. Cllr Keane asked the committee to offer ?support and interest? in the form of a design brief for the students. Cllr Keane said: ?If at a later stage it turned out there was funding to produce it, so be it, but at this stage we are looking simply at a design brief ? for example, perhaps no fur.? Cllr Iain Andrews said: ?This country has some of the most amazing designers in the world. If we support this type of thing, if it gets young people involved in local democracy, that?s good. It doesn?t involve us in any expenditure and I think it would be interesting to see what they come up with.? Cllr Alison Clish-Green and Cllr Roy Connelly did not feel the project needed any sort of endorsement from the council although it was admirable that the students wished to carry out such a project. Cllr Peter Jones, chairman of the committee, made it clear that the council was not going to purchase new mayoral garments. ?We are not rubber stamping new robes ? we have no intention of buying new robes,? he stressed. Cllr Norma Woodcock said it would be simple enough to give the students some guidance. ?The robes need to be worn by either a man or a woman and you have to be able to wear something underneath. It has to be able to be worn outdoors, with sufficient layers to keep you warm ? and by someone who is five foot or six foot tall, worn with a mayoral chain ? plus optional hat,? she said. The committee asked the clerk to write to the college, giving the students the councillors? ideas for a design brief.