A COUNTY highways official has told traffic-choked Okehampton that help is on the way in the form of its long-awaited railway service.

Devon County Council highways officer John Fewings admitted that many roads in Devon were on the verge of hitting their capacity.

Former Okehampton mayor Julie Yelland, in a written question to West Devon Borough Council’s overview and scrutiny committee, asked Mr Fewings that since the proposal of an access road to the town was not going ahead and that residents’ ideas over how congestion could be eased had been rejected, what was going to happen next.

Neighbourhood highways manager (south) Mr Fewings, who was answering questions about congestion in West Devon, said one of the issues facing Okehampton was that the town had three shopping centres which fed onto the main street and added: ’There is more traffic than those roads can cope with.’

He said: ’The railway station is opening up, which will help and I believe that a second station is being planned for the future.’

The highways official was referring to a planned parkway station to the east of the town, which the county council is trying to find funding for.

Mr Fewings and county council highways portfolio holder Stuart Hughes, also present at the meeting, were given a litany of roads problems across West Devon to take away with them.

These ranged from the state of secondary roads in the Chagford area to flooding in the Mary Tavy area caused by what was said to be inadequate drainage.

Mr Fewings told committee members: ’We are trying to squeeze as much out of our highways as we can, but there is a limit as to how many cars they can take. It only takes a small event like roadworks to cause big problems.’

He said that efforts were being made to better coordinate work on roads which involved utilites such as gas and water, but added that towns and larger centres which were planned in medieval times struggled to cope with present-day traffic.