BURRATOR residents on Tuesday said yes to holding a parish poll in which a future role for the euro in Britain will be called into question, writes Alan Gregory.

Around 30 people attended the meeting on Tuesday evening, some from outside the parish, and 20 eligible voters made their mark in favour of holding the poll.

The views of the entire parish will now be sought at a referendum which will ask whether they want to keep the pound as the currency of the United Kingdom.

One of the organisers, Graham Palmer, said: 'I was hoping that more people would attend the meeting, but unfortunately it had to be called at fairly short notice and so it probably wasn't advertised enough and many would have been on holiday.

'However, the required result was achieved and the most important thing now will be polling day, when we really do need as near to a 100 per cent turn out as we can get — every vote counts.'

The poll was called under the 1972 Local Government Act. Six parishioners are required to call a meeting and if ten people at the meeting say yes, a parish poll must be held.

Burrator Parish Council chairman Mike Parle said the parish council supported this act of democracy and added that the act was designed for just such an issue — to gauge opinion and show what the people thought.

The poll will now be organised by West Devon Borough Council. The bill, estimated at between £400 and £800, will be met by the parish council.

Meanwhile, Tavistock Town Councillors have been told a national campaign, orchestrated by the UK Independence Party, is behind calls for parish polls on the euro issue — a vote in Tavistock could cost the hard-pressed council £1,800.

Town clerk Roger Howard said he had been alerted by a 'parish clerk e-mail network' and had in turn alerted the councillors.

The last parish poll in Tavistock — on the genetically-modified foods issue — had cost the council £1,776.

Col Howard said he knew of ten parishes so far 'targeted', including Burrator, on a motion of whether or not to keep the pound sterling.

The campaign is being run by CARP, the Campaign Alliance for Referendums in Parishes. A spokesman for the UKIP said it was not an official party project, though it was very supportive and was one of the 'euro sceptic' organisations that made up the alliance. Others include the democracy Movement and the Magna Carta Society.