OKEHAMPTON Town Council has expressed its desire to be at the forefront of efforts to bring a passenger rail link back to Okehampton.

In the wake of the severe damage to the Dawlish line during recent storms, many are championing the need to make the south west's travel links more resilient and offer alternatives to ensure that large parts of the region are not left cut off because of bad weather.

While no firm decision has been made by Network Rail on an alternative route, the re-establishment of the Plymouth to Exeter line through Okehampton and Tavistock has been mooted as a genuine alternative to the Dawlish line should that line be rendered unusable.

Among those championing the resurrection of the line are West Devon Borough Council, Central Devon MP Mel Stride, county councillor for the Okehampton Rural Division Cllr Kevin Ball, and a number of business representatives who met with the pair at a recent meeting to try and formulate a strategy to bring the railway back to Okehampton.

At their full council meeting on Monday, town councillors expressed their desire to be involved with any efforts to bring the line back to the town. They agreed to write a letter to Conservative minister for transport Theresa Villiers, MPs across the region, Network Rail, and relevant train operating companies setting out the economic benefits a train line could bring to Okehampton, West Devon, North Devon and North Cornwall.

Cllr Michael Ireland is a long-standing advocate of seeing the railway return to Okehampton. He said: 'We should have been central to this meeting, not subsidial. It is time for the town council to become more central to this important issue. We need to put a decent lobbying case together before it's too late and the focus shifts from this.

'If we find the mechanism to write this letter, we need to make a solid economic case, not just for Okehampton but for West Devon, North Cornwall and North Devon.

'As a town council we must be much more pro-active and be seen to be so. Letters from various agencies and organisations have more credence than any petition.'

Cllr Jan Goffey noted the need to act quickly: 'We need to act now. For the first time in a lifetime, the Prime Minister has been heard to say the words Okehampton and railway in the same sentence. We need to push for this now and strike while the iron is hot.'

Deputy mayor Cllr Paul Vachon said: 'That an Okehampton line would open a corridor to North Cornwall, North Devon and Tavistock gives the scheme added value. That is something we should promote as much as possible.'

The town council also agreed to Devon Heartlands giving them a presentation on the potential return of the railway.