Okehampton Town Council has agreed to support a proposal by Devon County Council to implement new parking restrictions by painting double yellow lines along sections of Station Road, Fore Street and Merrivale Road.

The county council has proposed the amendments to reduce ‘danger to persons or other traffic using the road...and to preserve/[improve] the amentities of the area through which the roads run.’

Town councillors welcomed the proposal, citing traffic flow problems, obscured views of the road and problem parking as reasons to introduce the changes.

The proposed changes would see double yellow lines on Fore Street from Spur to Bridge House next to the chapel for its entire length up to the closed end, while double yellow lines would be added to the east side of Station Road for a length of 65 metres from its junction with Mill Road. Merrivale Road would see double yellow lines on both sides of the road from the junction with Hameldown Road for the length of the public highway.

The difficulties drivers face travelling along Station Road is well-known as the number of cars parked along both sides of the road can make it difficult, especially for larger vehicles, to pull in to allow oncoming vehicles to pass. Cllr Tony Leech also noted that proposed parking restrictions on Fore Street could alleviate the difficulties of problem parking in the area which has made it difficult for vehicles to rejoin the main road or caused the road section to become blocked by delivery vans parking there for extended periods of time. Councillors agreed to support the proposal to extend double yellow lines to both sides of Merrivale Road as traffic backlog is often caused by lorries struggling to exit the road.