DEVON County Council leader John Hart will visit Okehampton next week, to hear how the community can help improve life for the town's residents.

Mr Hart has been visiting market and coastal towns across Devon since September 25 as part of the Your Community, Your Choice series of meetings.

For the past three years, Mr Hart has staged public consultation events across the county, using the feedback and online responses to help county leaders concentrate on the issues most important to people.

This year's events are focusing on local community action. They are concentrating on identifying local priorities, and how Devon County Council can help and support communities improve life for local people by making changes or initiating new projects.

Mr Hart said: 'We're still in tough economic times and we can no longer do everything people want or that we would like to. But we are determined to support communities which wish to take action themselves.

'Across Devon there's a growing number of communities working in a different way and bringing about change.

'However we can do so much more by working more closely together.

'Now more than ever, communities have the opportunity to have more influence and take control over local priorities and services. Only by all working together in a new way will local priorities be delivered.

'The more communities take part in the events in person or online, the more we can do to work together to make it happen.'

The Okehampton meeting takes place on Wednesday, October 24 from 6.30pm in the Charter Hall.

No pre-booking is required, and there will be the opportunity to speak to John Hart as well as local county councillors about any issues affecting the community.

You can also get involved online at http://www.devon.gov.uk/localchoices">www.devon.gov.uk/localchoices and through Devon County Council's Twitter feed, @devoncc