OKEHAMPTON’S MP Mel Stride met with Chancellor George Osborne on Monday in an effort to keep up the pressure on the Government over the potential ’northern route’ rail line through the town.

Mr Stride told Mr Osborne that a new passenger rail service running west of Exeter to Crediton and Okehampton and then south through Tavistock to Plymouth would provide a critical service to thousands of his constituents and provide a huge boost to the local economy.

Mr Stride said: ’’There are two key arguments here. The first is that more than 10,000 of my constituents in Okehampton and the surrounding area are 20 miles away or more from their nearest rail service and so a new route would be good for commuters and good for those who can’t drive or don’t have access to a car.

’The second is the economic benefit that this route would bring, given the fact that there is currently only one rail route into South Devon and Cornwall and whenever there is a disruption to this line, like we saw with the terrible flooding in Dawlish in 2014, half of Devon and the whole of Cornwall is completely cut off. The Chancellor listened very carefully to the arguments in favour and I am confident that this will provide a boost to the campaign.’

Devon County Councillor for Okehampton Rural Kevin Ball said: ’Everyone involved with the campaign in Okehampton is hugely grateful to Mel for keeping this firmly on the Government’s radar. He has already secured visits from the Secretary of State for Transport and the Rail Minister to Okehampton to listen to the arguments and for Mel to single out this issue in a meeting with the Chancellor again shows how important this issue is.’

The Peninsula Rail Task Force (PRTF) has been urging South West MPs to support calls for funding for studies being conducted into rail connectivity, which are vital to the completion of a full PRTF report due this summer. PRTF’s original funding for the report from Network Rail and the Department for Transport has been pulled. There is also no further funding for rail development in the South West until 2019.

In a recent Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron said that the government ’needs to find an answer’ to the funding issue so the study can continue.