OKEHAMPTON Town Council has stressed that the improvement of the town’s infrastructure should be a priority within the proposed Joint Local Plan, following discussion at public consultation events.

The Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan, currently in its consultation period, is a plan for how the area could develop over the next 20 years, which covers important issues such as health, transport, homes, jobs, the economy, green spaces and infrastructure from 2014 until 2034. 

Okehampton Town Council’s planning committee has emphasised that the town’s infrastructure — specifically the need for the link road between Exeter Road and Crediton Road, along with a town centre relief road — needed to be made a ‘high priority’ within the plan. 

After an overwhelming response at public consultation meetings, which revealed traffic as a major concern for local residents, the council has expressed the importance of both of these measures, which would relieve traffic issues in the town. 

At a recent meeting, the town council discussed the consultation events held by West Devon Borough Council and agreed the need to respond to the Joint Local Plan consultation, as this would be the only opportunity to influence the soundness of the proposed policies at planning inspector level. 

The council said it would finalise its response for discussion at the planning committee meeting scheduled for April 24.

Okehampton Town Clerk Paul Snell said: ‘The discussion was very much orientated around the need for the link road to be built between Exeter Road and Crediton Road, with an emphasis on the promotion of employment and infrastructure before more residential development takes place. 

‘The eastward extension of the settlement boundary was not only green-field development but was making the town centre even more remote from the new housing.  This, in turn, was generating additional traffic congestion which makes the building of the link road and an inner relief road such a necessity.’

If built, the Exeter Road and Crediton link would run off the Hameldown round-about. The inner relief road would create a link between Lodge Hill on Market Street and North Street.

The need for the relief road in the town’s centre was identified by Devon County Council in 2004, with a strategy in 2010, but nothing more definite was discussed since.

The town council has expressed the need for the construction of both these roads to be included within the Joint Local Plan, which consultation ends on April 26. 

In the Joint Local Plan there is also an allocation for 775 homes in Okehampton. The Linden Homes and Persimmon Homes developments to the east of the town are already in the process of being built and the landowner now has planning permission to extend the development site to the north east for the further 775 homes.

The plan also identified the Stockley employment site as an employment-led development site and a proposal to redevelop the Mill Road car park for housing, which was raised last year, will not be allocated for housing.

The Okehampton rail link with Exeter has also been supported in the plan.