A BID to gain ‘plastic free’ status for Porthleven has been given the support of the town council.

Members received a visit from Julia Schofield of Refresh Porthleven last week, who told them the big wish was to gain Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status.

One of the criteria was that it had to have the support of the town council, by formally approving the bid in the minutes of a meeting and by making changes itself to use biodegradable items instead of single-use – as well as requesting in writing that its contractors do the same. The council also had to nominate a councillor as an official representative on the bid management committee.

Ms Schofield told councillors: “Gaining this status would be something to be very proud of and something all businesses in the port can use in publicity.”

She said the Costcutter supermarket in the port sold the majority of its fresh produce unwrapped, while two major holiday cottage companies that operated in Porthleven were going to include information in their welcome packs to visitors.

A total of 18 businesses in the port had now signed up to the scheme and were refilling reusable bottles, selling reusable bottles or replacing single-use plastic items with biodegradable versions for customers.

“This plastic free status, it’s not just tokenism. We have got to get a certain number of businesses to replace at least three plastic items. Most have replaced two of them, but are finding a third is really quite difficult – and a lot are not replacing, they’re doing it as well as, which isn’t good enough for plastic free status,” she added.

Deputy mayor Bev Plunkett said she did not foresee it being a problem for the council to source biodegradable products, but she was unsure at what level they could insist that contractors did the same.

“We can encourage, but we can’t say, ‘You’ve got to’,” she said.

Councillor Mark Adair agreed: “Is that we use our influence to try and persuade this? It’s not, ‘If you’re not 100 per cent plastic free we can’t use you?’”

Ms Schofield confirmed that urging them to do it as far as possible and is practical would be sufficient.

Councillor Alan Jorgensen was also keen that large amounts of public money were not spent, to the detriment of other services in Porthleven.

Ms Schofield said it was about using china cups rather than plastic ones, or paper plates not plastic.

The council agreed to include its support in the minutes.