A former Penryn town councillor who served the town for eight years has died, it was announced last week.

Cait Hutchings passed away in Warwick, where she had moved after leaving Penryn several years ago. She had sat on the council for eight years from May 2007, but resigned in January 2015 citing "personal family reasons."

At the time of her resignation, then-mayor Gill Grant said Mrs Hutchings was, "a lively debater and a proactive member" of the council, and her departure would be a "great loss to Penryn Town Council and the town."

As well as serving on the council, Mrs Hutchings did a great amount of work for the local branch of the Samaritans and the Penryn Old People's Club, and was involved with the local Women's Institute Branch. She was also involved in the creation of a new Liberal Democrat branch for Falmouth and Penryn, along with fellow councillor Beverley Hulme.

In 2006 Mrs Hutchings became a widow when her husband Stuart, a town councillor for more than 20 years who had joined Cornwall Council a year previously, passed away in his home.

He had been a keen birdwatcher and had been building a boardwalk at the Windmill Farm nature reserve on The Lizard prior to his death. Mrs Hutchings took over this task in his memory, and in 2014 she was at the reopening of the reserve's landmark windmill after it was restored for use as a viewing tower.

Christopher Smith, who sat alongside Mrs Hutchings on the council, paid tribute to her this week. He said she was "a voice of reason and inclusiveness on Penryn Council, kind hearted, thoughtful; to hear her recite Joyce and other Irish prose and poetry in her soft Irish brogue was a delight."