An Okehampton resident has suggested that a merger of the Okehampton Town Council and Okehampton Hamlets Parish Council (OHPC) would resolve the ongoing battle over a boundary review and allow the two to work together better.

The suggestion, made by Alison Duckers, an Okehampton Hamlets parish resident, follows on from the announcement made by the OHPC last week that it opposed the town council’s proposed boundary review arguing that the change would lead to an increase in council tax for residents, result in fewer councillors working for the benefit of Okehampton and mean less money was available to donate to local charities and organisations.

Ms Duckers said: ‘Historically, there’s a problem with the two councils working together, communicating, sharing information, working together on things, and therefore to have one council would actually resolve that for the good of the community. So I felt that if they’d been able to do that they might have a mutual understanding.

‘If you had one council that drew from the two sets of council tax and then managed all of the assets of the Hamlets and the town[such as Simmons Park and Old Town Park], that would be a much better, a much fairer way of going about it. My third reason is that I’m actually the chair of the neighbourhood planning group and this is one really good example of where working together is better and just makes sense to me that the Neighbourhood Plan area incorporates both the issues of the town and the Hamlets.’

In September last year, the town council petitioned West Devon Borough Council to consider rethinking the council boundaries in order to reflect the growth of the town. The town council proposed expanding the town boundaries to include the new builds on the eastern side of town which are currently part of OHPC, arguing that traditionally the town council had focused on managing the urbanised part of the town while the Hamlets focused on rural outskirts. The town council added that many newbuild residents already thought they were within the town council’s boundaries and currently use town facilities without needing to pay for them.

However, one of the key complaints regarding the petition is that only town residents were consulted on the proposed change despite the fact that a boundary change would affect residents within the Hamlets as well.

OHPC chairman Brian Wood, said: ‘OHPC does welcome a West Devon-wide review. OHPC opposes the Okehampton Town Council proposals for a number of reasons which we will highlight over the coming weeks.’

Okehampton Town Council has said it will not issue a response to the OHPC opposition at this point in time.

Residents in both the town and the Hamlets are now able offer their opinions about the boundary change and at www.westdevon.gov.uk/community-governance-review, by email to [email protected] or by post to Democratic Services, West Devon Borough Council, Kilworthy Park, Drake Road, Tavistock PL19 0BZ.