Map boards look likely to be the first project to be carried out in Helston using the £250,000 “supermarket money.”

The public realm project board, which sits regularly as part of ongoing discussions on how to spend the section 106 money given by Tesco and Sainsbury’s, believes map boards should be in place “as soon as possible,” rather than wait until the end of the consultation.

The boards would be placed in the town’s main car parks and at other key locations.

Initial proposed sites are the Guildhall behind the granite bench, the pedestrian exit of the Trengrouse Way car park, the pedestrian exit of the Tyacke Road car park, next to the ticket machine in the Old Cattle Market car park and the fairground car park near to the Porthleven Road pedestrian crossing.

There was also a suggestion of asking both supermarkets to site a map board on their grounds, to attract more people into the town centre.

Although nothing has been finalised, the suggestion is for the boards to include an A1 sized map of the town centre, an A3 sized map of Penrose, including Coronation Lake, and various supporting text to include references to Flora Day and Helston being the gateway to the Lizard Peninsula.

The town map would be based on the existing illustrated town map by Hermione Mills, commissioned by the Helston Business Improvement Partnership, while the Penrose artwork already exists with the National Trust.

There would be potential for an area map of the Lizard Peninsula to be added to the back of some of the map boards as a later phase of the project.

Giving an update to the town council, regeneration office Martin Searle said although no decisions had been taken on the design of the boards, a black frame with detailing in gold – to reflect the Cornish colours – was being considered.

The town council has agreed to apply for the necessary advertisement consent (although there will be no commercial adverts on the boards) in order to halve the application cost, to £192.50.

The cost of the boards is still being investigated with local suppliers.

The project board members have already met with a designer and Cornwall Council officer about the Discovery Map project, which has already seen boards go up in other towns such as Camborne, Penzance and Newquay.

These have been accompanied by printed maps and a website.

However, the board did not think this was the right approach for Helston, as many of the elements had already been accomplished by HBIP, including the illustrated town map and Visit Helston website.