Mike Davies

A busy man with a strong love of the community

Councillor, Reverend, Mayor, President - this year, Okehampton resident Mike Davies is certainly going to be wearing quite a few hats!

Mike is a ward member for Okehampton North on West Devon Borough Council and became mayor of the borough in May. He is also Pastor at the Inspiration Church in Okehampton and is president of the town’s Rotary Club. If this wasn’t enough, he’s chair of the OkeRail Forum plus a trustee of local and national charities. He’s clearly a man with an extremely strong sense of community.

Mike was born in Folkestone in Kent - his Dad was a Royal Marine and and his first few years were spent in Singapore, before the family moved back to the UK, where most of his schooling took place in Plymouth.

As a young man he was a keen canoeist and competed at national and international level during the early 1980s. Luckily, his first employers, HM Revenue and Customs, were supportive, allowing him the time to commit to a rigorous training programme, but as he somewhat wryly remarked, despite having the benefit of good sponsorship and international travel for several years, he never won any title of note!

Qualifying as a chartered tax accountant, he worked in Plymouth and Exeter for several years, before moving to Okehampton in January 2000, having been asked to start a new church - Inspiration - Church of the Nations.

‘I became a Christian when I was 23,’ said Mike. ‘I had no Christian background before that. I think at that point, like many people, you don’t think about the journey you are on in life. Some colleagues were talking about Christianity, I decided to buy a bible and I read it - I was persuaded. I became more involved in the church and I was ordained in 2002.’

Mike is responsible for Inspiration in Okehampton and plays a supervisory role in several other churches across the UK.

Having headed up his own accountancy businesses for many years, Mike now works with his wife Justine in their own insurance property surveying company.

He joined the town council in 2003 and served as Okehampton’s mayor between 2012 and 2014, before leaving when he was elected to the borough council in 2015.

So why did this already busy man decide to dip his toes into grassroots democracy?

‘I just wanted to get involved in community affairs,’ said Mike. ‘I certainly thought it was good as a church minister to do so and one of the best ways to do that is through the local council - only thing is you have to get elected first!

‘I do enjoy it - though it can be frustrating when you try and get things done and they don’t happen. We have been pressing for a link road in Okehampton for years but finding the finances is the problem, it will cost millions. I am also chairman of the audit committee, so there’s also a lot of pressure on us to balance our books.’

Having become mayor he admits to the occasional ‘What have I committed myself to?’ thought, but is looking forward to a busy 12 months in the role.

‘It’s such a big geographical area - the other day I had to be in Bere Alston by 8.30am - I had to leave Okehampton at 7.30am and I needed to be in Bridgwater to preach by 11.30 - I only just made it!’ he laughed.

Politically, Mike is a Conservative - in fact, he is chair of Central Devon Conservatives. He said: ‘I was an Independent councillor for many years but then I thought people had a right to know roughly where I stood. I see myself as being middle to left of the party.

‘Actually, I quite often compare the church with politics. When people align themselves to a political party, they don’t always necessarily believe in all its policies. In the same way, you might not believe 60% of what is being preached from a pulpit.’

As chairman of OkeRail, Mike is a passionate campaigner who believes Okehampton deserves a regular passenger rail link with Exeter.

‘I really do think it’s going to happen now. It seemed pie in the sky a few years ago, but now the land’s been allocated for a parkway station and the bigwigs keep turning up here. It will make a huge difference to Okehampton. There are still a lot of people here who don’t have a car but if you could get a regular train into Exeter it would be a huge boost.’

Mike, a family man with a 12-year-old son, has a packed diary for each and every one of his varied roles. He seems to be the embodiment of that phrase ‘if you want something doing, ask a busy person’.

‘You can either sit at home and moan about things, or you can get out and try and do something about them,’ said the man who definitely tries to practise what he preaches.

Jane Honey