Okehampton Town Council is set to hand out surveys to Okehampton town residents to ask whether they would support a review of the town council boundaries.

At the last council meeting (July 25), town councillors resolved to petition residents within the Okehampton Town Council area whether it should petition West Devon Borough Council for a boundary review which could see town boundaries extended to include the new housing developments on the eastern edge of the town.

Town councillor Jan Goffey, said: ‘We have had a meeting and gone through our draft to go to West Devon. It should go to all residents on the electoral roll. We will start giving them out straight away.’

The decision follows discussions on whether the current town boundaries are too outdated as the town grows.

The town council has argued that the current boundaries no longer reflect the nature of the town which is served by two councils: Okehampton Town Council and Okehampton Hamlets Parish Council.

Traditionally, Okehampton Town Council has had responsibility for the more urbanised areas in the centre of the town and the Hamlets has focused on governing the rural outskirts, but as the town grows and new housing developments encroach on the once rural areas of the Hamlets, the town council has proposed that a review takes place to reflect the changing nature of the town.

It is argued that the growing number of Okehampton Hamlets’ residents use Okehampton town facilities including Simmons Park, the public toilets at Fairplace and Market Street, the cemetery, skate park and the town’s CCTV.

Okehampton Town Councillor Christine Marsh, said: ‘We have been talking about this for a long time and a lot of people who have moved in think they live in the Okehampton town.

‘We as town council pay for all the facilities and there’s no contribution from the Hamlets unless we write to them. The park and open spaces are our biggest budget and it’s a beautiful facility but it all falls on to the town council.

‘All of the new housing - it’s in the Hamlets and none of it will go to the town council. Ages ago we talked about it and the Hamlets said it’s in the rural area and the town council is urban but the Hamlets is getting more and more built up and urban.

‘I would like to see the two councils working together. Other small parishes have done so and it would give us a greater voice in government.’

The town council will now ask residents to sign a petition ‘to demonstrate the support of the town residents for the boundary change proposal’ in order that ‘residents of greater Okehampton should be able to feel part of the urban area and have a democratic voice to the community they believe they are a part of.’

The town council needs at least 7.5 per cent of the electorate to sign the petition before the borough council will consider carrying out the review. In May of this year, there were 5,369 residents on the electoral roll in the Okehampton town area, meaning that the council would need at least 403 signatures to reach the required 7.5 per cent mark.

The petition also requests that the governance review considers removing the current town wards to allow town councillors to represent the whole of the town area and also asks that the number of town councillors remain at 14 - its current number.

The move follows a decision by Okehampton Hamlets Parish Council two weeks ago not to consider a boundary review in a community governance review stating that Okehampton was no different to any other town and could not be reviewed in isolation.

Hamlets clerk Jane Gillard, said: ‘Okehampton is no different to many other towns all over the country, housing developments are happening nationally. Just because towns are expanding does not necessarily mean historical parish boundaries need to be reviewed, particularly in isolation.’