A BOLD plan to create a ‘buzzing business community’ with employment opportunities for young people has edged a step closer in Okehampton.

The Okehampton Skills and Sports Trust has put in a planning application for a business incubation unit in Okehampton East Business Park.

The charity’s proposal is to create 50 flexible workspace units in two buildings on an acre plot to be offered to young people with bright ideas for fledgling businesses.

It could support as many as 150 jobs within three to five years of being established.

The proposal is being backed by substantial financial investment from an undisclosed local benefactor, who has covered the cost of buying the 1.1 acre plot.

Ian Courtney from the trust said: ‘The plan is to create a business incubation unit with support, encouragement, mentoring and financial assistance for new businesses, particularly those set up by younger people.

‘The idea is to keep people with a bit of get up and go from getting up and going and also to attract enterprising people to the area. To make it financially viable and self supporting, we are going to build two buildings, one considerably larger than the other.

‘We know there is a particular shortage of small industrial units to buy and rent in the area so what we will do is sell enough of them to cover the construction costs. Then we will do the bulk of the charitable work on the first floor of the main building.

‘We want to create a networking buzzy business community where people can feed off each other, can work together and give each other business,’ added Mr Courtney. ‘We will provide secondary business support services on site. Charitable beneficiaries will receive that for free and commercial purchasers can buy into that.

‘What we want to do is build a community of like-minded people so it’s not just an industrial estate, it’s a thriving entrepreneurial hub.’

He said that the idea was that young entrepreneurs would use the units to start businesses off before moving to larger premises elsewhere.

‘It takes a few years for a new business to get secure enough to expand to employ people so we would be thinking about a three to five year turnover,’ he said.

Mr Courtney, who worked as a commercial banker for 38 years, said the proposal would be aimed at mentoring young people who wanted to take a vocational route, working in conjunction with Okehampton College and local further education colleges.

He said he had seen first-hand experience that the academic route did not suit all young people in his position as a long-time chairman of the governors at Okehampton College.

‘There are plenty of youngsters in state schools at the moment who are being forced down an academic route and yet plenty of them want to leave at 16 and that isn’t as easy as it used to be,’ he said. ‘There are some very creative and adventurous people out there but they get bounced around a bit and all that energy can get knocked out of them if you’re not careful. The point is not to squash it too much. We want to give people a lift and a helping hand.’

The 20-acre employment site on the east side of the town is being developed with £2-million investment from Devon County Council. It has good transport links to the A30 and proximity to the county council-owned site earmarked for a railway station, should plans to reinstate a rail service from Okehampton to Exeter come to fruition. It also has superfast broadband.

‘If we get planning consent in January, we would be looking to start work around about Easter so we are looking to open in the late summer if everything goes nice and smoothly,’ said Mr Courtney.

He added that further donations were expected in due course from an undisclosed benefactor. ‘There are various charitable donations to come,’ he said. ‘We have the strong support of a main employer in the area.’