OKEHAMPTON Town Council is looking for partners to help fund a feasibility study into a commuter rail link between Okehampton and Exeter, after Devon County Council indicated it was not a priority.

Councillors had called for a study to be part of the new Structure Plan for the county, which dictates how communities will develop and expand up to the year 2016.

Population growth in Okehampton is set to rise dramatically in the next ten years and the town council is campaigning for better public transport to ease congestion on the roads.

It says there is increasing pressure on dormitory-type towns like Okehampton to cater for people to access work places at principal urban areas like Exeter.

But the main priorities for the county council over the next few years include upgrading the Waterloo line service and improved frequency between Exeter and Barnstaple.

Deputy county environment director Ian Harrison said the timescale in seeking improvements in the rail industry was necessarily lengthy.

?At the moment we support a Sunday Rover service to Exeter on Sundays but a weekday service is not on our priority list,? he said. ?We are trying to get a decent level of service on those already operating like Barnstaple to Exeter.?

Mr Harrison said there was no interest from train operators to run a commuter service from Okehampton to Exeter and the costs would be significant.

?It is more realistic to look to the bus service, although it has to be said it is not terribly well patronised at the present time,? he said.

?As Okehampton continues to grow, a more direct bus link along the A30 may well be an option. We understand that people may not presently use the service because it picks up from all the villages and takes much longer to get to their destination than a car journey would.?

But he added that the Strategic Rail Authority funded ?socially necessary? rail services, not just those that were economic.

?If the town council thinks it worth pursuing it can consider forming a Rail Passenger Partnership and putting forward a bid to the Strategic Rail Authority to support an improved level of service on the line,? he said.

The bid would however involve local financial support and interest from a train operating company to be successful.

Okehampton Town Council is approaching West Devon Borough Council plus other agencies and bodies to gauge the interest in developing a commuter service.

It also plans to pursue a feasibility study through the Market and Coastal Towns Initiative, a regeneration scheme with the potential of drawing millions of pounds into the area.

Mayor of the town Christine Marsh, who is also a Devon county councillor, said it was not just the people of Okehampton who would use the service, but commuters from other areas of Devon and Cornwall who were very keen to park up at Okehampton Station and travel to Exeter and on to London.

?We are very lucky to have the Okehampton to Exeter line still in place thanks to Meldon Quarry, otherwise it would have disappeared along with the rest of them,? she said.

?It was left there for a reason and we should now be working with it to get the best for everyone.?