Town could be site for new food ?hub?

A MAJOR new food centre could be created in Okehampton, sparked by pioneering partnership talks in the town this week. Derek Godfrey-Brown has been in discussion with borough council representatives to share his ideas for using the new Opportunity Okehampton industrial units on the outskirts of the town as a hub for small food businesses. Mr Godfrey-Brown said: ?We are an agricultural community and we felt an enormous pain during the foot and mouth crisis and we have had to do a great deal to recover. I think this could be a major opportunity for Okehampton.? Mr Godfrey-Brown said there seemed so far to have been a good response to the idea locally. ?There is a lot of interest,? he said. Mr Godfrey-Brown wrote to the Times last week noting the decision by the Government Office South West to scrap plans for a dedicated food plant near Tiverton, which he said could present an opportunity for Okehampton to ?step in?. Mr Godfrey-Brown said in 1997, when he was a director of the Okehampton OK regeneration agency, he had suggested that land at the Exeter Road industrial estate be set aside for ?embryonic units? for emerging food businesses as Okehampton was a potential centre. He expressed concerns that the proposal had been sidelined at the time by the borough council, in favour of development the Pitts Cleave industrial project in Tavistock. The chief executive of West Devon Borough Council, David Incoll, said the council was working now to get the site opened up and the infrastructure in place, and then it could look at the sorts of businesses the units might attract. ?We have been pushing for five years for this site. We have resisted all calls for the site to be used for retail or warehouses, we want to see high quality jobs on the site,? said Mr Incoll. ?We have got to make sure there are businesses willing to invest in the site. ?If we can get food businesses there, it will be wonderful, but the priority is to look to bring in quality businesses who will create the maximum number of well paid jobs.? West Devon and Devon County councillor James McInnes said he had discussed the idea with Mr Godfrey-Brown and he ?very much hoped there might be an opportunity for the site to become a food hub.? West Devon Borough Council announced earlier this year that the Opportunity Okehampton business park would be made of 16 small business starter units plus ancillary spaces.