Vital link road won’t be open until the autumn

Developers have been granted more time to complete a much-needed link road to ease traffic congestion in Okehampton.

Barratt David Wilson Homes now has until the end of September to finish and open the road to the south of the town.

It will connect the north and south of Okehampton and serve the urban extension, where 775 new homes are being built.

A legal agreement put in place when planning permission was granted stated that the road should be opened before the 100th home at the Okemont Park development is occupied.

It is one of two parcels of land the company is developing.

But it has asked to modify the agreement, claiming that it can’t open the road yet as construction activity makes it unsafe.

The company’s agent said: “The central location of the link road within the development, which was required for technical reasons, has meant that construction activities are going on either side of it. Heavy plant machinery regularly crosses the link road.”

They said opening it would lead to “a significant and unnecessary health and safety risk” to members of the public, employees, and customers.

In the meantime, the housebuilder has offered to put in £100,000 towards a new footpath, 40 per cent of the cost, to create a safe route to a primary school, which has been supported by Okehampton Town Council and Okehampton Hamlets Parish Council.

West Devon Borough Council’s development management and licensing committee has accepted the funding and a new opening time for the link road of 30 September, or before the 200th home is completed, whichever comes first.

Cllr George Dexter (Lib Dem, Okehampton North) has been campaigning for the footpath, and he considered the variation to the agreement an “excellent compromise.”

Cllr Tony Leech (Ind, Okehampton North) agreed with planning officers’ comments that it was disappointing an experienced national housebuilder didn’t predict and highlight the safety issues.

He said the relief road had been urgently required long before most of the recent development, and it is vital it opens well in advance of the new Okehampton Interchange station opening in spring 2026.

He said the council had many chances to get the road built. “Now we have got to the last phase, and I’m still not sure it will be built in time,” he said.

“How many times have the developers found a way around it? We must not impede road travel in this area.”

He said there was “little option” but to agree to the variation, but added: “We must make very sure the developer keeps to the letter of the agreement at this time.”

Officers acknowledged that Barratt David Wilson Homes was in breach of the original legal agreement, as it had continued to build homes without completing or opening the road, but only a relatively small number of dwellings are needed to reach the 200th.

A southern link road in Okehampton to connect Exeter Road with Crediton Road was identified in planning blueprints in 2011 and stemmed from the need to relieve traffic pressures in the town centre.

The growth to the east of the town includes a primary school, some small shops, open space, and cycling and walking links to the town centre.

Devon County Council, as the highways authority, hasn’t objected to the modification of the agreement, concluding that “the change to work patterns and people choosing to work from home post-Covid has meant that numbers of vehicle movements are much lower than were previously predicted, and that there has been no tangible evidence of congestion or an increase in collisions/personal injury.”