THE campaign against 'excessive' housing in Okehampton and the need to listen to people in the town and area are top of the agenda for the area's new MP.

Conservative Mel Stride was elected with more than 50% of the vote in the new Central Devon seat at last Thursday's general election.

Speaking almost a week on from his election, Mr Stride said he would always put the people first and felt honoured to be elected.

He said: 'I'm very happy with the result here, especially the size of the majority, the fact that I received over half the votes cast and that, at 76%, the turnout was amongst the highest in the country.

Mr Stride said he would play a positive and constructive role in ensuring that people are provided with a stable and effective government.

He said: 'My immediate focus for Okehampton is to do whatever I can to head-off the excessive level of new housing development planned within the local core strategy.

'This is something that I am working on at the moment and I will be making my case to the Planning Inspector in due course.

'Achieving a Conservative-led government will be critical here — it will be far harder to achieve if we are not in office.

'But I will never be complacent and never forget that it is local people I am answerable to — they have a right to expect nothing less than one hundred per cent commitment and total sincerity from me.

'They have placed their trust in me and with that comes a very great responsibility.'

Mr Stride said office location was something he would be reviewing over the coming weeks.

He said: 'Central Devon represents a big challenge in this respect as it is one of the largest constituencies in the country, covering over 700 square miles, so it is not possible to find an office location that is close to every community.

'Unfortunately it would be prohibitively expensive to provide a separate staffed office in each of the main towns, for example, Okehampton.

'I will of course hold regular surgeries in Okehampton and continue to canvass door to door there, so that I am aware of the issues that are of concern and can provide help to local constituents where required.

'The Okehampton Conservative Club will also continue to provide an important base for me in the town.'

He added: 'I will be a full time MP and work with a total commitment to my constituents.

'I have a young family with two daughters under four and they need their daddy and their daddy needs them, so I will make sure that I set aside quality time for them during my busy week.'

Mr Stride won the general election with 27,737 votes, 9,230 ahead of Liberal Democrat Philip Hutty, who pulled in 18,507 votes.

In third and fourth place were Labour's Moira Macdonald with 3,715 votes and UKIP's Bob Edwards, with 2,870 votes.

In fifth place was the Green Party's Colin Mathews with 1,044 votes.

The new constituency covers a large area of mid Devon and takes in towns, including Okehampton, Hatherleigh, Moretonhampstead and Crediton.

The new constituency, administered by West Devon Borough Council, saw more than 54,000 people go to the polls.

The overnight count was held at Okehampton College where 111 ballot boxes were administered.

l In the neighbouring West Devon and Torridge seat, several parishes of which are in the Times circulation area, Conservative Geoffrey Cox was re-elected with a majority of 2,957 over Liberal Democrat candidate Adam Symons.