RESIDENTS of Okehampton are being urged to turn out for a parish poll next Thursday to vote on whether or not the town's war memorial should be moved.

The poll will take place at the Charter Hall on March 30 between the hours of 4pm to 9pm. Town clerk John Winchester said it was very important to get as large a turnout as possible.

'It is a waste of time if the 5,000 people who are the electorate of Okehampton say it is nothing to do with them,' he said.

'This war memorial was put there by the forefathers of this town after the first world war and there are many residents who have family connections with the people who are named on it.

'To get a strong reflection of what the whole town wants we need as many people as possible to place their vote — and it has to be done in person.'

The question will be: 'Do you want to seek permission to move the war memorial from the churchyard at All Saints Church to another location in the town?'

One of the reasons why the Okehampton branch of the Royal British Legion feels it should be moved is because the present site is 'not very accessible' for the war veterans who take part in the Remembrance Day parade.

Chairman of the branch, Roy Rattenbury, said many of the people who fought in the last war were frail and found it difficult marching from the town centre up the hill to the churchyard.

'Going up by coach would take some of the pride away — it would not be the same,' he said.

'But it is not just for the one day, the ladies' section attend the war memorial throughout the year to put flowers on it.'

Mr Rattenbury said there was very little room around the memorial for the numbers of people attending on Remembrance Day or the volume of wreaths that were laid. This resulted in people having to stand on graves.

'It certainly takes something away from the whole thing,' he said.

'You find in many towns and villages memorials are somewhere in the centre of town where they can be seen by everybody, locals and visitors alike.

'Why is our memorial hidden in the corner of a churchyard when we should be advertising the fact that this town stood firm and did its duty when called upon and paid the ultimate price?'

He added that there were people named on the memorial who came from all faiths, not just Church of England.

Vicar of All Saints Parish Church, the Rev Russell Chamberlain, said the people of the town made their choice to put the war memorial in the churchyard all those years ago.

'They could have put it in Simmons Park or the town centre but they chose the churchyard,' he said.

'What people have to bear in mind is that there is a long history of war graves and memorials in the churchyard which span about 800 years.'

The oldest grave is a crusader grave which is said to be quite rare and there are graves from the Battle of Agincourt, the Civil War, Napoleonic Wars and Boer War plus 15th century military graves, Royalist graves and first and second world war graves.

Mr Chamberlain said there were people named on the war memorial who did not have marked graves and the fact that the memorial was on consecrated ground was very significant to them.