Callington is set to go ahead with an £86,000 funding bid to smarten up shopfronts.

Cornwall Council has set aside £1.23m for projects that improve the vitality of the county’s high streets. Local councillors have backed various bids to obtain some of the town centre regeneration cash.

The largest application, for £86k, is being drafted by Callington’s Town Team. If successful, the money will be used to refurbish shopfronts in Fore Street.

Kelvin Spinks of the Town Forum said that the panel awarding the grants “need evidence that the project will improve footfall and trade”, and to that end conversations would be carried out with traders in the town centre.

Councillor Sue Tolman highlighted that time was of the essence as according to the conditions of the fund, work would need to be completed by March 2025.

Meanwhile other projects to come, should the council be successful in obtaining funding, include the modernisation of sound and lighting systems in the Town Hall, and the upgrading of the flag poles on St Mary’s Square with pulley systems.

Town councillors voted to back the application for cash to upgrade the hall building’s lighting. After hearing that the council would need to put money towards this project, councillors added a condition that the costs should not come to more than £10,000, in case the grant application should not bear fruit.

Councillors were informed by finance officer Helen Dowdall that £10k of council funds had been earmarked for the lighting upgrade.