PROMINENT Okehampton councillor Christine Marsh has resigned from the Conservative Group on West Devon Borough Council.

Her decision to quit followed a public meeting on Friday night where a row broke out over voting on the controversial core strategy, the blueprint for development in West Devon.

Cllr Marsh, who was substituted at the crucial meeting to vote on the core strategy in April because, she claimed, she was going to vote against it, said her resignation followed a string of events over the last three and a half years.

She said: 'It is really sad that it has come to this but I had no alternative.

'I am still a Conservative and will remain a Conservative county councillor but I will no longer be part of the Conservative group on the borough council.'

Leader of the Conservative group Cllr James McInnes said: 'I am very sorry that Cllr Marsh has felt it necessary to resign. It is a very difficult issue and I respect her position.'

Cllr McInnes maintained he had been under the impression that Cllr Marsh could not attend the core strategy meeting on April 19 and been entirely honest all the way through the process.

At last Friday's public meeting in the Ockment Centre, Cllr Marsh, leader of the council Cllr McInnes and chairman of the future planning and housing committee Conservative Cllr Diana Moyse were asked to explain the substitution of Cllr Marsh at the council meeting where the core strategy was approved by six votes to four.

Cllr Marsh was substituted by a Conservative councillor who voted in favour of the strategy which dictates the development of the borough over the next 16 years.

Conservative Cllr Mandy Govier, who had indicated she would have abstained from voting on this issue, was also substituted by another councillor who voted in favour of the strategy. If the existing members had been present the vote could have been defeated by six votes to five.

Councillors at the meeting on Friday were accused of evading questions and bickering, 'leaving a bad taste in the mouth' of the 60 or so residents from Tavistock and Okehampton who attended.

Cllr Moyse said she had requested substitutions of two of the Conservative councillors because the date of the meeting had been changed and these councillors had to attend other meetings. She later admitted she had never been told by Cllr Marsh that she could not attend the meeting.

Valerie Airton said: 'It's clearly a matter of integrity. All we want is a simple answer to a simple question and the longer you evade this question, the less our confidence is going to grow in this council.'

Cllr Marsh was criticised for not going along to the meeting anyway and giving the views of the people of Okehampton, even if she could not vote. The councillor said she regretted she had not gone.

She said: 'Cllr Moyse believes in what she is doing in the core strategy and it does not happen to be what I believe.'

Former Okehampton and borough councillor Jayne Hill said: 'It would appear that people did not have the voice at that meeting that they would have liked.'

Liberal Democrat councillor Alison Clish-Green said she was substituted for another Lib Dem councillor, who could not make the meeting, because she was from the same town and held the same view and that was the way it should be.

Cllr Diana Moyse said her fellow Conservative member Cllr Marsh had only attended one of the last four future planning and housing committee meetings. She said if she had been in her position she would have done everything she could to be at that meeting: 'I would be shouting and screaming to be in that seat,' she said.

But Okehampton town councillor Maureen McDonald said it was completely wrong of Cllr Moyse to say that Cllr Marsh's attendance was poor. She pointed out that Cllr Marsh represented people on the town, borough and county councils and only had so much time.

'I think this is absolutely awful — this bickering does not put anyone in a good light,' said Cllr McDonald.

'Everyone will have the opportunity to vote through the ballet box next year,' she said.

Okehampton resident Maureen Bryant said there were many people who thought that the core strategy voting was a done deal before the meeting on April 19.

'There are three councillors involved here. If this happened in private business someone would be given the sack. If you cannot decide who it is the whole lot should go.'