COUNTY council proposals to solve Okehampton town centre’s transport problems by removing the traffic lights in the town centre look likely to be shelved after being rejected by locals.

Okehampton county councillor Kevin Ball said that out of 174 completed responses to the recent town centre traffic consultation, 142 people were not in favour for having the traffic lights removed at three junctions in the town centre.

He said: ‘I am disappointed that through the consultation submissions people didn’t feel they could support what we have proposed.

‘It isn’t Devon Councy Council’s will to impose an idea that is unpopular but there are limited choices of what we can do to improve things. We will basically go back and see what else we might be able to do to imporve the flow of traffic through the town, particularly at peak times of the day.

He added: ‘If anybody has any suggestions they can always let me or the county council know.’

The idea was proposed, together with options to change the priorities at each of the junctions, to ease the traffic problems in the town.

These are particuarly severe first thing in the morning and at school picking up time and whenever traffic is diverted through the town following an accident on the A30.

Cllr Ball shared the results of the survey at a meeting of Okehampton Town Council on Monday night (November 30), whose own response to the consultation was suggest that the traffic lights be disabled on a trial basis only.

The plans on the table were to remove the lights at the main road through town at the junctions with Barton Road, Mill Road, and George Street and Market Street.

What emerged through the consultation, though, Cllr Ball conceded, was a clear preference instead for a plan for a new road to bypass the town to the north.

This route, known as the town centre access route, had been proposed back in 2010 but ruled out by Devon County Council in 2017 after a fresh study. Cllr Ball told an online webinar that the cost had reached £13- million and was judged by the county council to be ‘undeliverable’.

This is also due to the difficulties of engineering the route, which must pass over Oaklands Drive and across the river to link up with Lodge Hill behind the Okehampton supermarkets. There are buildings in the way and negotations would have to be made with landowners.

Cllr Julie Yelland asked Cllr Ball to pass on to Devon County Council, though, that that was people in Okehampton’s preferred option and that this was behind why they had not supported the traffic light removal plan in the town centre.

She said: ‘I think there was an overwhelming sense from members of the public that [the access road] is what the public wanted, and that is why they are saying no. That might be something you want to take back to the county council.’

Cllr Ball responded: ‘I accept that is behind a lot of the answers.’

The county council had suggested during the consultation closing on November 15 that removing the lights would help traffic flow. However, the public were worried about the safety of pedestrians in particular with delivery lorries trying to turn into Market Street on four-way junction without lights.