A COMPROMISE agreement is in the pipeline, after plans to paint over one of Callington's well known murals caused fury in the town.

A new mural will be painted through the archway to Biscombe's Lane, replacing the mural of marine life created by pupils of Callington Primary School 13 years ago.

Members of the town council and business owners were up in arms that the artwork was to disappear in preparation for development work, without, they claimed, any prior consultation from the new owner. It forms part of the nationally-known Callington mural trail.

Cllr Jeremy Gist said the painting was very important to Callington, and to see developers preparing to blank it out last Wednesday had been 'very disappointing'.

He said: 'The murals are something we have spent a lot of time and money promoting, to encourage people to come into Callington. There are former pupils of the school who are very proud of what they did on that mural.'

A new mural leaflet had just been published, detailing all 15 of the town's murals, and a grant had recently been secured for restoration and maintenance work.

Following the reaction in the town, Mike Pallot of Tavistock-based developers Mildcase Limited has been in communication with Cllr Gist and sent a statement to the Times, in which he said he had no wish to upset the residents of Callington.

He said: 'The render beneath the mural requires extensive repair or replacement and this work is structural in nature. The extent of the work necessary is such that the existing mural cannot realistically be saved, which is regrettable.'

He proposed that once the work was complete, 'a blank canvas' should be left for the town council to organise the creation of a new mural depicting scenes of historical significance to Callington after consulting and obtaining the agreement of the new tenants.

Mr Pallot said his company had bought the property at 12 Fore Street in May last year and had obtained all the necessary consents for work to refurbish the building.

Until now, no approach had been made to Mildcase Limited about the exterior painting of the building, nor were there any restrictions in place that prevented the company from painting the walls.

He said he was surprised that a painting of marine creatures that would normally be found in an exotic location should be regarded as part of Callington's rich history: 'Since it was first painted, it would appear that the only addition or alteration to the mural has been graffiti,' he said.

'No maintenance work of any kind appears to have been carried out to the wall or to the mural since its creation.'

Mr Gist said the whole episode could have been avoided if the town council had been approached about the wall in the first instance but he was glad 'a compromise' had been reached.

The work to paint over the mural will take place shortly.