A MAJOR row has broken out between Tavistock Town and West Devon Borough councils.

Battle lines have been drawn in the argument over where the town?s polling station should be based ? West Devon wants it to stay in the pannier market, but the town council, concerned by the loss of revenue from market trading, is adamant it should be set up in the town hall.

Now the town council has thrown down the gauntlet and says it may go to the local government ombudsman if West Devon refuses to switch voting to the town hall venue.

In a strongly worded letter to West Devon Council chief executive David Incoll, furious town councillors say he does not have a ?valid case? for insisting on polling at the pannier market.

The town council loses more than £1,000 a day when the market is closed and traders lose their livelihood for one or two days.

The authority says it has taken legal advice and is informed that the returning officer is required to make arrangements for the conduct of the poll ? subject to it being available.

?We cannot see that you have a valid case to insist on the market as we are offering a suitable alternative,? the council says in its letter to Mr Incoll.

?At the end of the day ? and at great expense to the rate payer ? you could try to enforce your choice through court action.

?But in the context of the loss of a market, the loss of income and the offer of an alternative location we cannot see how you could substantiate a case for such further action.?

The town hall was used as a polling station years ago and later moved to the pannier market as at the time the market did not trade on a Thursday and was easily available.

This situation has changed and the market now trades five, and sometimes six, days a week.

Objections had been put forward by the borough concerning the suitability of the town hall, but despite better lighting and a lift being installed, West Devon Council is not satisfied.

Mr Incoll said: ?It is questionable whether the lift in the town hall has the capacity to cope with the number of people coming in.

?We know the pannier market works for elections and have never had any complaints about it.

?I would personally not want to run an election where people are disadvantaged because the venue or facilities cannot cope with the numbers and people cannot reasonably get to it to vote.?

He said there was a usually a good turnout of voters in Tavistock and this was to be encouraged. In the recent European elections, the turnout for the North Ward was 39.42% and 40.73% for the South Ward.

With many elderly residents living in the town and a new disability discrimination act coming in, the pressure was on to provide disabled access wherever possible.

Mr Incoll said he had been personally appointed to be the returning officer but this could change at any future election and someone else may have a different opinion: ?Elections are important and whoever runs them can requisition a public building at no cost to them.

?I stand by my decision because it is too big a risk when the public would be the losers.?

Tavistock mayor Jenny Metcalf said the council had done its level best to bring the town hall up to the borough?s requirements, including carpeting the stairs to make them safer, and installing a disabled toilet.

Cllr Metcalf said: ?Losing a day?s takings in the middle of a busy trading week at the pannier market is just not on as far as we are concerned.

?You never see more than a few people at a time voting anyway ? they vote in dribs and drabs and we feel the town hall is perfectly adequate to cope.?