A COACH and bus park for Okehampton is at the top of the priority list for projects in the town but it is not likely to happen before the 2001 season, a West Devon Borough Council official confirmed this week.

Seventeen projects have been planned for the regeneration of Okehampton over the next couple of years for which the borough council has earmarked more than £900,000 from the Waitrose receipt.

On a priority list that recently went before the council's policy and resources committee the creation of a coach park is listed to start in the autumn but the borough council's deputy chief executive David Inman said this week it all depended on finding and acquiring some land.

'Until we have done a feasibility study on a series of sites we are not in a position to proceed with it,' he said. 'We are working on that issue but it is likely to be the 2001 season before we have cracked it. It does however remain our number one priority.

The total cost of the scheme has been estimated at £150,000 and the borough council has agreed to contribute £100,000 towards it.

The former Bostocks Garden Centre site in Mill Road was one of the locations identified but it is considered to be a little on the small side.

Mr Inman said Okehampton Town Council had been very helpful making an area of Simmons Park available to coaches and on the whole the system was working very well and it was 'buying the council some time'.

But he stressed it was a temporary arrangement and the authority wanted to provide a permanent solution.

Chairman of the chamber of trade Ian Bailey said coach parking was vitally important to a lot of small businesses in the town.

'We have been waiting for a designated coach park since the beginning of the Waitrose build but it has patently not come off,' he said.

'Last year traders battened down the hatches hoping the coaches would come back in 2000 but already a large part of the second season has gone by and we still have no facility for coaches to park.

'Once they get in the habit of not coming here it is hard to get them back again.'