ANGER has greeted the news that a relief road to ease congestion in Okehampton town centre is not likely to be considered for at least another seven years.
Devon County Council says it cannot justify spending several millions of pounds on a relief road when greater problems exist in other parts of the county.
Traffic officers will tell members of West Devon Highways and Traffic Orders Committee today (Thursday) that the suggested Oaklands Drive relief road would not attract sufficient traffic to be justified.
The larger towns of Barnstaple, Newton Abbot and the city of Exeter are on the priority list for congestion-busting solutions up to the year 2011.
But councillors in Okehampton have vowed to continue putting the pressure on after a major support campaign was launched in March with hundreds of names collected on petitions throughout the town.
Ken Williams, one of the four Okehampton borough councillors who launched the cross-party support campaign, said people were bypassing Okehampton to visit other towns because of the congestion problems.
He said: ?This is a negative response from the county council and our general reaction is that we must keep the pressure on.
?Further surveys need to be done at the appropriate times to get a true picture of the traffic problems we have in Okehampton.?
In the region of 800 new homes are planned for Okehampton over the next decade and Mr Williams said there would come a time when the county council had no choice.
?The increase in population will be such that something will have to be done and we would like to see it sooner rather than later,? he said.
Devon county councillor for the Okehampton ward Christine Marsh said she would be making sure a relief road for Okehampton would be looked at again before the year 2011: ?The people of Okehampton want this road and so does the borough council and I will make sure it stays on the agenda. We have to keep banging the drum.?
Local service officer for the county council Brian George said the concerns of the people of Okehampton had been heard.
?If money was no object a lot of things would be looked at in the county, but with the funds we have available we have to give priority to places like Exeter and Barnstaple where the congestion problems are worse,? he said.
?A multi-million pound relief road for Okehampton, which would be well used for an hour or two hours a day but pretty empty for the remaining twenty-two, cannot be justified as a value for money scheme when we have so many other demands in Devon.?
Mr George said there were congestion hot-spots but these lasted for periods of about half an hour at rush hour times.
?If we suddenly get congestion lasting two hours then it will be reconsidered, but at the moment it is not in our transport plan up to the year 2011.?