A 'BIG turnover' in people serving on Tavistock Town Council was called into question by a former mayor at the annual town meeting last week.

Norma Woodcock, former town councillor for 34 years and three-times mayor, questioned the current mayor and councillors during public question time at the meeting as to why it seemed many councillors left after only serving short periods of time on the council.

Mrs Woodcock asked: 'Can you hazard a reason why there seems to be a relatively big turnover in councillors? They seem to come and go after a short period of time — there are some old faces but I find it interesting that people want to join the council, then after a relatively short time they go off and then we start with a load of new people.'

Mrs Woodcock said it is important that people were committed to the council.

Mayor Philip Sanders said he believed the reason was a generational issue: 'I think one issue is that people tend not to be joiners anymore. This issue is not specific to Tavistock, most councils have less people coming forward. The younger generation seem to be less interested in politics — it's a generational thing.

'There is a disheartenment in politics, most adults are sick of politicians. I know the council shouldn't run on political lines but we are seen as political animals.'

Cllr Sanders also said at the meeting, to which only four members of the public attended, that there was a lack of enthusiasm among the public: 'People have less of a will to serve the community in this way, they have different issues and ideas and different things that they are interested in. Here is an annual meeting which should be important and there's four members of the public here — where's the enthusiasm of people? We've got to try to re-kindle that.'

Of the 17 members now on the council, at the elections last year 12 were automatically re-elected as not enough people stood. Two councillors were elected last May and three others were co-opted onto the council after the election.

Town clerk Carl Hearn said: 'The under 40s seem to have different aspirations. They are more likely to be a member of a focus group or online group. There is also the perception that councils are too slow for the pace of modern life. People these days are finding different ways to help the community, so we need to find other ways of getting people interested.'

Former Tavistock town councillor and now Devon County Councillor Debo Sellis said being a councillor was hard work for people with full-time jobs or young children: 'I left because I was doing 16 hours a day, six days a week.

'Being on the town council was a brilliant platform for me — I never imagined I'd be doing what I do now, but if I was working full time or had young children I would never have done it. I work closely with the councillors and I think they work very hard.'

Long standing councillor Jenny Metcalf who has stood on the council for around 13 years, second longest standing member after Ted Sherrell who has served for 39 years, said: 'I do think everyone here is committed but it's hard to know how to do things better.'