Okehampton Town Council will be hosting a public meeting next week to allow Okehampton residents to view and comment on the county council’s proposal to introduce on-street parking charges in the town centre.

The meeting will take place at 7pm in the Ockment Centre on December 14 and comes as the town council described Devon County Council’s (DCC) continued push for the parking meters despite opposition from residents as “dismissive.”

In a statement, the town council wrote: “The council considers DCC’s ongoing refusal to consider its comments and those of residents, traders and visitors as dismissive and a direct lack of regard for this tier of local authority, joint working and the public.

“This is despite: the consultation undertaken by Okehampton Town Council, to gauge opinion about DCC’s initial on-street charging proposal which was clearly unsupported by 97% of the 1,826 people who took part; the joint request by many of the affected councils in Devon...for the consultation to be delayed until after Christmas, and a request for local evidence of need.

“Only the number of penalty notices issued in the last 12 months [have] been provided and DCC Officers [have stated that] we should ‘trust their opinion’.”

DCC has refused to postpone the consultation, which opened on November 30 and will run for 21 days.

To date representatives from DCC, including Councillor Hughes, the Cabinet Member for Highway Management, have declined an invitation attend this meeting to present the proposal and answer questions.

A plan of the proposal can be found on Okehampton Town Council’s website along with details of how to comment.