A?NEW primary school in Okehampton is not a priority, town councillors have been told.

A plot of land adjacent to the development site at Exeter Road Industrial Estate had been allocated for a new primary school as part of the Local Plan.

But at a town council planning meeting last week, Simon Niles, the planning and strategic manager for children's services with Devon County Council, said a new school in Okehampton was not going to be built in the immediate future.

Instead, the county council will continue to assess the schooling situation in the town and surrounding area until it feels it is necessary to build a new school.

Mr Niles told town councillors: 'We have been spending a lot of time looking over this and talking to schools in the Okehampton Learning Community.

'The number of children currently in the area looks like it can be contained in current facilities. Okehampton Primary is now a popular school, while other parents are still choosing schools on the outskirts of Okehampton in villages.

'Those schools are very concerned by the possibility of losing children that help them to stay open and keep standards high to a new school. This is a familiar situation across the county.

'The timescale for any new school depends on the house building. There will be a trigger point in the future, based on house building, migration into town, births and other factors. But we must be careful that we trigger any build at the right time, so the effect on other schools in the surrounding area is minimal.'

Councillors were disappointed with the news. Cllr Kay Bickley said: 'Speaking to people in the town, they seem concerned. They see an area earmarked for a school being built around and over. It's a genuine concern.

'I am saddened to hear the choice is that those with money and time to travel to outlying schools will now have to. It leads to social division and that is not what our community is about.'

The news came in the same week that the company behind the development of land adjacent to Exeter Road Industrial Estate in Okehampton unveiled its latest plans to residents.

At the Museum of Dartmoor Life, the public was invited to see the plan outline for the site by Linden Homes, the team overseeing the development plans.

The proposals revealed the intention to build 320 new homes on the site, ranging in style and size. The scheme would include a mix of one, two, three and four bedroom properties, all with parking provision for 1.5 cars per home.

More than 100 of the new homes would be for affordable housing.

The site is to the east of Baldwin Drive, and south of the B3215. To the south of the site is Exeter Road Industrial Estate. The land has been allocated for residential development by West Devon Borough Council, and has outline planning permission for approximately 366 dwellings.

The plan shown is for a lower density of houses to account for the steep topography of the site

Twenty of the new homes would be accessed via an extension to Baldwin Drive. No vehicular access would be available to the rest of the build, with these 20 homes enclosing a cul-de-sac at the end of the extended road. If the plans get the go ahead, these 20 homes would be built first.

Access would be provided to the new estate via an extension to Hameldown Road through the industrial estate. The development would include a new spine road, with provision for a link between Hameldown Road and Crediton Road via the new Persimmons Homes scheme.

There is also a legal agreement designed to secure community benefits. Linden Homes would contribute toward local education, totalling more than £500,000 and to the transport infrastructure, providing a public bus service that would utilise the new link road.

The borough council would receive over £2-million and the county council more than £500,000 over a six-year period through the Government's New Homes Bonus scheme.

Linden Homes is now looking to submit the further details of its plans to the borough council in a Reserved Matters application following a review of the comments received at the consultation. It expects the plans to go in front of the borough council in May.