THE income from the multi-storey car park is higher than anticipated, Launceston residents heard last week.

At the annual town meeting in Launceston Town Hall last Thursday, April 7, attended by representatives of local charities and organisations to receive grants from Launceston Town Council, Cllr John Conway gave a financial update.

He said of the multi-story car park: “The income is about £10,000 higher than we estimated, so the car park is doing very well. It is full most of the time.”

He said by bringing grass cutting ‘in-house’, the town council has made savings of around £8,000: “We are not only saving in financial terms, it also means our own staff take pride in their own town.”

Cllr Conway said the town council had also paid to restore the Charles Causley portrait in the entrance way of the Town Hall.

He said overall, the town council was ‘up £30,000 on what we intended to be’, but added: “The bad news is we didn’t paint the Town Hall.”

He said the painting will be carried out this year at a cost of around £12,000, adding the town council is ‘about £18,000 up overall’.

The town council along with FLIC — Launceston’s community cinema — also provided funding for a new projector in the town hall.

Those at the meeting later heard from deputy mayor Cllr Margaret Young that a recent showing of The Lady in the Van by FLIC at the town hall proved to be the community cinema’s ‘blockbuster’ — 300 people packed the hall for the showing and people had to be turned away. Cllr Young said: “FLIC goes from strength to strength.”