OKEHAMPTON Chamber of Trade is calling on West Devon Borough Council to 'lay its cards on the table' over plans for a coach park.

At a meeting last Thursday, concerned chamber members said that the delays in the project were 'potentially disastrous' for small businesses in the town who relied on the trade brought in by buses and coaches.

The town lost its coach parking facilities in School Way when Waitrose was built and it is now the second season Okehampton has been without a parking area.

Derek Godfrey-Brown, who greets coaches on a voluntary basis when they come into Okehampton, told the meeting he had been subject to abuse from coach drivers who were fed up with the parking situation in Okehampton.

'I really think this coach parking has started to get out of hand,' said chairman Ian Bailey. 'We have been categorically told from day one that it is a priority with West Devon but it seems to be going further and further into the distance.'

In an article in the Times last week, deputy chief executive of the borough council, David Inman, said a coach park was not likely to happen until the 2001 season because of the difficulties in finding and acquiring land.

Mr Godfrey-Brown said nothing had yet come up for budgetary consideration at West Devon Borough Council which meant that it could be 2002 before anything happened.

With the borough council's encouragement, £1,000 had been spent on advertising the town in a coach driver's magazine to get tours to come to Okehampton, but once they got here there was nowhere to park, Mr Godfrey-Brown told the meeting.

'Since Easter, coach numbers have taken a plunge because there were two letters in "Coach Monthly" bemoaning the fact that Okehampton has still not got its act together,' he said.

Sidney Thompson from Okehampton OK said if every person on a 50-seater coach spent £5 in Okehampton that was £250 a coach.

'If ten coaches come here that is £2,500 — it multiplies pretty quickly,' he said.

He added the old primary school site should have been considered for a bus park rather than a supermarket.

Mr Bailey is to write to the borough council and request an urgent meeting to 'thrash out the facts.'

'I want West Devon to lay its cards on the table — with no coach park it is potentially disastrous for small businesses in Okehampton and the chamber should not sit still and watch this happen.'