GOVERNMENT minister Conservative Nick Hurd is visiting Okehampton today (Thursday) to see how the town has battled to overcome last year's redundancies.

Mr Hurd, the minister for the Civil Society, will be meeting representatives from various community bodies and agencies in the town to discuss issues affecting the area since the redundancies were made at Robert Wiseman Dairies, Polestar and Brownes' Chocolates.

He will speak to community leaders at the Ockment Centre and meet business leaders at the Okehampton Business Centre.

Joining Mr Hurd on his trip will be Devon County Council's cabinet member for economy and chair of the Okehampton Works Partnership, Will Mumford, and Central Devon MP Mel Stride.

Cllr Mumford said: 'I am delighted that Nick Hurd has accepted our invitation to come to Okehampton and see how local people, businesses and agencies are working together for the benefit of the town.

'We are all aware of the significant redundancies which Okehampton had to face last year. The town had a particularly difficult time and the impact on employment was considerable.

'Working with West Devon and other partners, we helped to address some of the short term issues and a number of new jobs have already been created. We are now working on a longer term plan for the sustainable development of the town and the new site will form a key part of that plan.

'Devon County Council is also leading on the Connecting Devon and Somerset programme, which will offer superfast broadband between 2013 to 2015.

'The vast majority of rural businesses in Devon tell us that speedier broadband is their number one priority in terms of consolidating and expanding their operations.

'So we will be able to demonstrate to Nick Hurd that the Big Society is thriving in Okehampton — as it already has in many rural areas — and we are working hard to develop and consolidate these partnerships, whether they are formal or informal, to the benefit of local people and the local community.'