Penryn Town Council has voted to allow a non-councillor to lead the Neighbourhood Plan steering group after current chair David Garwood announced he would not be standing in May's elections.

The current terms of reference for the group require that a councillor be chair with a non-councillor as vice-chair, which would have meant Mr Garwood taking a lesser role when he leaves the council next month.

Councillor Mary May told a recent council meeting: "We have a chairman now who is willing to lead, unfortunately he will no longer be a councillor.

"But he's assured me that he will be willing to take he chairmanship on board and see it through to the end."

Mrs May had proposed changing the terms of reference to allow Mr Garwood to stay despite not being elected as a councillor, with a new vice-chairman to be elected from among the council after May.

She said: "We did it in the first place because it's council money and we hold the bank accounts. The council will still be steering the plan, we hold the money."

The mayor, Mark Snowdon, said he agreed with Mrs May and Mr Garwood "would have been chairman" whether or not he was a councillor, adding: "We have still got the same person at the helm."

However he said the council needed to keep a councillor as vice-chair so "should anything happen" the new chair will be a council member, as otherwise the public might end up "taking charge of what's a council run thing."

However Councillor John Langan said he didn't feel the terms of reference needed to be changed as if Mr Garwood was no longer able to fulfill the role it could then revert to another member of the council.

He added: "Dave was elected chairman, he stays as chairman."

Mr Garwood thanked the council for their support, and added: "One of the main reasons I won't be carrying on as a councillor is so that I can dedicate time for this.

"I want to do this and I want to do it well, whether I am a councillor or not.

"When I said I'd step down I assumed I wouldn't be chairman. It's not important to me, being chairman at all, but this is important to me and I really want to see the work carried through."

Councillors passed a proposal to keep Mr Garwood as chair with a councillor as vice-chair.