OKEHAMPTON Chamber of Trade aims to make the town website one of the very best in the country.

Businesses in Okehampton, both large and small, can join up to the website for as little as £20, chairman of the chamber Ian Bailey told a meeting last week.

It is anticipated that 300,000 people will visit the website in the first year.

Mr Bailey said it was important to have one website for the town which gave Internet users every possible piece of information about Okehampton from the history to accommodation, property, attractions, schools, events, pubs and restaurants.

'We do not want a number of websites starting up with little bits of information — it will show a town that is not united and not communicating with each other,' he said.

'If everybody is under one website address, which is professionally designed, it looks good and it ups the image of Okehampton throughout the world.

'Hopefully every business in the town will join up — I think everyone will realise that £20 for an advert is tremendously cheap.'

The website has been designed by Simon Lloyd of Touchwood Design, Okehampton, to be user friendly and it is planned to get it up and running in eight weeks.

'Because it is easy to adapt in any way, it can be updated on a regular basis if you have special offers you want to promote,' said Mr Bailey.

'Nothing is set in stone. Anything can be changed with the touch of a button.'

After the initial costs there will be an annual fee to advertise on the website but this will be a reduced to 60 or 70 per cent of the original price.

It was suggested that a cross section of groups become involved in developing the website such as Okehampton Teens to Twenties and regular meetings be held every three months.

Members of the chamber were told if they did not have a computer, they would still benefit from being on the website because e-mails could be received on their behalf or people could still contact them by phone or fax.

'We want to show that Okehampton has a lot of offer — and it's not just commercial,' said Mr Bailey.

'The town council is interested in putting local amenities on the site and the schools are interested in forming their own chat line.

'We have so many organisations and groups that can link into this massive project.

'We will lag behind badly if we do not do this — at these sort of prices and with a designer of Simon's ability it would be silly not to get involved.'

For more information phone Simon Lloyd on 01837 53117.