A Penryn town councillor has said local groups should 'get off their backsides' to support themselves as much as possible and not just rely on community grants from the council.

Councillor Mary May, who is also the Cornwall Councillor for Penryn West, made her observations as the town council was discussing four applications for grants at its meeting on Monday evening.

She said: "It's great we get grant applications and it's great we are having these projects, but sometimes it would be nice to see organisations getting off their backsides and raising money towards it."

Councillor May was talking during a discussion over providing £300 for the Glasney Green Space Regeneration Project, and Councillor Rich Mitchell said: "I know they do raise funds, but that's been taken up by other things, and this is something on top."

Councillor Ted Wilkes supported the proposed grant, which would be for three of four wildlife cameras for the Glasney Valley, and said: "The more we do to help people doing this sort of things the better."

The grant was passed, as was a grant for to provide initial funding of £300 for a pop-up cinema in the Temperance Hall, which will cover hall hire for the first 12 months of venue hire.

Councillor May said the cinema was a "great idea" but reminded councillors that there are other groups, including ones with which she is involved, that raise funds to pay for their own hall hire.

She said: "Yes, give it to them, but be mindful that other organisations pay our £9 or £10 each week. We don't have much money in our pot but we fundraise and that pays our overheads."

Councillor Wilkes said the idea harked back to an old cinema club which used to run in Penryn, and agreed with Councillor May that the group should be funded for now but "look to back themselves up later on."

Councillor Gill Grant backed the idea, saying the Temperance Hall "is crying out for something like this," and Councillor Chris Smith said short films shown before the main feature would be a food way of involving the university students.

A grant for £400 was awarded to the Penryn and District Twinning Association, to go towards the cost of a trip to Audierne in Brittany this year and of hosting visitors from the town in Penryn next year.

Councillor May supported the grant, and noted that the group does "a lot of fundraising" including a Christmas lunch and a stall at the town fair.

The fourth grant, of £36 for a trial of free over 60s fitness classes in the Temperance Hall, was also passed by councillors.