THE driving force behind Okehampton?s successful farmers? market claims traffic congestion in the town is becoming so bad it is driving people away.
Derek Godfrey-Brown said the queues of cars trying to enter Okehampton from both the eastern and western end of the town was a ?serious? threat to the vitality of the town.
Mr Godfrey-Brown said: ?It?s all very well Okehampton being a thriving market town, but on Monday week, people were turning round in considerable numbers because they couldn?t get into town.
??One lane into the town from west just doesn?t work.?
Mr Godfrey-Brown said that before the bypass was built, Okehampton famously used to suffer traffic congestion on a Saturday ? but now it was happening every day.
?It?s absolutely ludicrous and it?s got to be costing traders serious money, it can?t be doing Okehampton any good,? he said.
Mr Godfrey-Brown said he welcomed calls for a relief road reported in the Times last month, but said any new road would have to be thought out extremely carefully.
?We can?t have another farce like we have seen here,? he said.
The western entrance to Okehampton was changed from two lanes to one as part of the ongoing enhancement of the town, when trees were planted in the centre of Fore Street.
The question of a relief road, possibly using Oaklands Drive and linking with industrial estates to the north of Okehampton, has recently been flagged up by West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett.
The creation of such a road is to be investigated at the public inquiry into West Devon?s new Local Plan, which starts on January 14.