CALLINGTON Town Council has rather reluctantly agreed to fill in a questionnaire from Caradon District Council, after members complained about their burden of paperwork.

The district council had given Callington a severe ticking-off for declining to respond to the survey, which it said was essential for its review of services.

Steve Besford-Foster, planning manager for Caradon, wrote to Callington's town clerk Michael Williams: 'Caradon has invested heavily in Callington in the past. It must review its policies affecting these services. As our future provision of services will be planned on the basis of the information received, the absence of any input from Callington must mean there is a risk that Caradon could adopt community and economic regeneration policies which do not help to address the particular issues of Callington.'

Cllr Tony Nettle said at the town council meeting last week: 'these surveys are a pain' but he argued that they should think again and send a reply. He said he was 'worried to death' that the town would lose out if they did not complete the survey.

Chairman Kath Pascoe said the council was trying to work in partnership with Caradon, which had spent a lot of money on the town.

Cllr Andy Long said it was 'underhand of Caradon to say if you help us with the survey we will help you with the swimming pool.'

Cllr Roger Ellard agreed: 'It smacks a little bit of blackmail.'

Cllr Pascoe commented that the survey stemmed from the government's Best Value programme.

Cllr Jane Black blamed the complexity of the survey for the failure to respond. 'It's so convoluted we haven't been able to do it. We've got a fair bit of brain around this table, but we couldn't do it,' she said.

Cllr Jeremy Gist supported this view: 'we want to go back to plain English,' he observed.