A RENEWED plea for an Okehampton relief road was last week issued by councillors, who fear congestion is driving shoppers away from the town. The call for action came from a delegation of Okehampton?s borough council members at West Devon?s highways and traffic orders committee (HATOC) meeting in Tavistock. Cllr Nick Morgan said he had recently been stuck in gridlocked traffic around the town?s three supermarkets and witnessed at first hand the problems faced by motorists. He said: ?This is not just an isolated incident, this is happening on a regular basis. We are losing trade in Okehampton ? Waitrose on that particular day was complaining bitterly. ?People don?t want to come into Okehampton because they can?t get in or out ? they?d much rather spend an extra 20 minutes in the car and go to Exeter or Launceston. ?I believe West Devon and Devon County Council have to work urgently together on this problem.? Cllr Jayne Hill said gridlocked traffic in Okehampton had been predicted four years ago by borough councillors ? and dismissed by the county council. She said: ?We are here begging highways to do something proactive and positive to relieve the stress to local people and businesses. ?I really am pleading to look at this and look at it realistically, not just look at a computer programme ? computer models don?t necessarily match reality.? Cllr David Weeks said he knew many people who were now using alternative towns in which to do their shopping. He said: ?I work at the post office ? when I start work it can take me 25 minutes to drive six tenths of a mile. There is an urgent need for a relief road.? Cllr James McInnes said it had taken him more than an hour to drive into the centre of Okehampton recently, during which time he had seen one near-accident and many people turn round and drive away. Cllr Christine Marsh, a county council member of HATOC, said she had previously been involved in meetings with the chief executive of the borough council and John Burnett MP regarding a relief road for the town. She stressed the route, using Oaklands Road and requiring a new bridge over the River Okement, only needed to be a minor road for local people and she hoped the county, in partnership with the borough council, could work together to pursue such a scheme. Brian George, the county?s local service officer, said the county council had investigated the idea of a relief road ? but lack of finances was always going to be the major problem. ?We have looked at what is the minimum we could do to achieve a road, and a ball-park figure was about £2-million for the work ? then you have the question of the land and who controls it,? said Mr George. ?The difficulty the county has is their limited resources ? and we have a county-wide issue of congestion. ?I don?t think the county?s ever said there?s no congestion in Okehampton, but relative to Exeter or Barnstaple, it?s just not very high on the priority list.? Mr George said the council had tried to be proactive in dealing with Okehampton?s traffic problems ? it was moving the disabled parking bays from Fore Street and the traffic light sequences had been changed. The HATOC committee agreed to ask the county council to re-visit the problem of traffic congestion in the town and investigate a solution in partnership with the borough council, including the issue of increased road capacity.
