THE roadworks have been completed and one has had the chance to see the results and yes, the planners and the architect were right . . .
They have created a 'pedestrian-friendly town' because if one needed to access the place from outside the town from the west then one had to be prepared to queue from beyond Macey's Lane. I personally spent 20 minutes from there to the New Life Church and then witnessed, as I had forecast, traffic forcing its way out from High Street using the residential area as a 'rat-run'.
Then, on eventually reaching Westbridge itself, saw light sequences changing and no traffic moving, as, of course, with only one lane the cars wanting to go straight ahead could not because those turning left were held up by traffic trying to access the three supermarkets.
In regard to traffic from the Exeter Road end, that was as bad. An ex-chairman of the 'Hamlets' Parish Council took an hour to reach the town from the filling station at the top.
So, having achieved 'gridlock' on the first serious weekend, are we going to stop vehicles completely — those travelling from the eastern end come by train and then coach from the station, those from the west by river barge down the Okement, those from the north be given a coupon for petrol to Barnstaple.
Okehampton cannot exist without the car, whether from the hinterland or the newer estates at the top of Crediton and Exeter Roads and so provision must be made and experience has shown, as was stressed by those who clearly were more perceptive than the planning engineers, that narrowing of main arteries works no better in road terms than in the human body.
Derek Godfrey-Brown
Cllr Okehampton Hamlets