A £130,000 enhancement project for the St James Chapel area in Okehampton may be completed this year following approval from West Devon Borough councillors.

The scheme has been designed by artist Ray Smith who was commissioned by the council to come up with a number of concepts for the regeneration of Okehampton.

Support for the St James Chapel concepts was given by the majority of the public who attended an exhibition in the town last summer.

The scheme consists of a paved granite relaxation area with seats, planters and a granite cross standing between six and nine feet high.

At a meeting of West Devon Council's strategic development committee on Tuesday members voted to approve stage two of the project which is the provision of walling, containers and seats costing £40,000 — half of the money will come from the borough council and half from European funding.

The laying down of the paved area around the chapel is the responsibility of Devon County Council which is funding it at a cost of £80,000.

The third part of the project is a granite cross, inspired by the granite crosses on Dartmoor, and it is hoped the £12,000 needed to do this can be met by public subscription.

The town council has pledged £4,000 towards the cross and the trustees of the chapel will be asked to consider the feature as their millennium project.

The meeting was told that because the county council's work was starting in June, it might be advantageous to the borough council to bring the second part of the scheme forward. The work was not officially scheduled until January 2001.

But despite support for the scheme, ward member for Okehampton Cllr Joan Pauley has criticised it saying the granite chosen was out of keeping with the 13th century church.

'The granite against the church will be horrendous and I do not think everybody wants to see this hideous cross,' she said.

'I am concerned on behalf of the people of Okehampton that we do not get another Bedford Square episode — we need to get it right from the start.'

She made a plea that local granite was used and not imported granite.

Cllr Caroline Keane from Tavistock said a preference should be made for local granite but this was the year 2000 and it was important to be creative and design something for the future.

'We should be joining in and excited about this,' she said.

Deputy chief executive of the borough council David Inman said although the cross was not included in the concepts, architect Peter Woodgate, who had designed a scheme for the St James Chapel area 18 months ago on behalf of the trustees, had mentioned a cross as a possible feature.

He said the borough council had taken on board the project because Mr Woodgate's proposals were not supported by English Heritage and they needed to be consulted because the site was in a conservation area.

He said there had been a series of meeting between the trustees and Ray Smith to discuss the designs.