Councillors in Penryn have expressed their disappointment at a lack of community engagement as they push ahead with developing a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP).

The proposal of developing a plan came about following strong popular protests over development at College Valley, and would seek to give local people a say in such issues in the future, but has failed to grab the attention of the public.

The council sent out 3,147 paper questionnaires and had a stall at fair day canvassing opinion but only received 126 paper copies with 62 more completed online, although of those that were returned 161, or 85 per cent, said they supported a NDP while only one did not, and the rest were undecided or indeterminable.

While the number of responses is above the five per cent considered a "good return" by Cornwall Council's community network manager, mayor Mark Snowdon said he was "not going to hide my disappointment on that return on the time that councillors gave up to engage with the public."

However, he supported the Neighbourhood Plan Working Party's recommendation that it be dissolved and a steering group be convened to begin work on a NDP.

As part of the recommendation, it was also suggested that the means of engagement will need to be looked at to increase levels of responses from the public, although Councillor Rich Mitchell told councillors that as the plan progressed it was to be hoped more people would engage.

He also pointed out that statistically, if an MP receives a letter they will equate that to 1,000 voices within their constituency.

He said it wasn't made clear in the questionnaire "how a neighbourhood plan will affect them [the people of the town.]"

Councillor Snowdon said he hoped councillor Mitchell was right on growing support, as the plan would be 18 months or so of work followed by a referendum, and without support "it will fall flat."

Councillor Martin Mullins said: "We do this to show that we're doing our bit, we're getting it right. We mustn't stop because of the apathy of the people in this town.

Councillor Chas Wenmoth said the biggest problem wasn't apathy, it was "failure on our part to put across to the person in the street what the neighbourhood plan was about."

He said: "You need to go out into the pubs and cafes and shops and talk to people, it's no good sending out pieces of paper which people just throw away."

Councillor John Langan asked if there was any idea of a budget, as he did not want to give "carte blanche" to the steering group, and after Councillor Mary May said there could be £6,000 of funding available he suggested that that be the budget, with extra costs expected from council staff working on the plan.

Councillor May and Councillor Chris Smith suggested, and other councillors agreed, that it was important to engage professional support on the plan, and Councillor May suggested that there were several ex-planning officers who could be approached.