A DREAM for a development of new shops, cafs and homes on the derelict North Gate site, which promised to breathe new life into Devizes town centre, has finally been dashed.

Nearly £20,000 was spent on one consultation alone in an attempt to get an imaginative scheme, but they all came to nothing.

Now the plan is to build retirement housing for the elderly and a small number of affordable homes on the former cattle market and Devizes Motor Company site.

Just a small area is expected to be earmarked for offices and the One Stop Shop in the Market Place is the only part of the site for retail development.

The Devizes Motor Company site was bought by Kennet District Council at the end of 1997 and bulldozed in 1998, when the present art park was erected, complete with totem poles bearing poems and other works of art dotted around the site.

Slowly but surely, Kennet bought up the freehold of the rest of the site over the next two years until they were in a position, in 2000, to reach an agreement with a commercial developer to sell them the land.

It then signed an agreement with Heritage Property Services to redevelop the North Gate and Wharf sites for a mixture of retail, office and residential use with a central courtyard and continental style caf culture.

Council contracts with Heritage and with Bath-based Phoenicia Barr have since fallen through and Kennet said it had no alternative but to go it alone in redeveloping the area.

But local groups have now slammed the unimaginative proposal and condemned it as a lost opportunity for revitalising the town.

Peter Lay, chairman of Devizes Development Partnership and a developer, said: "Developing the area for housing will not benefit the town's economy.

Jeff Ody, chairman of the Trust for Devizes, said: "The sad thing about the whole development is that so much of it is going for residential use.

"It needs a lot more caf society open spaces and specialist shops."

The regeneration of the town centre started with a report by town planners Donaldsons in 1995, recommending the redevelopment of key areas of the town such as the Wharf, the North Gate, the central and west central car parks and Station Road.

Auctioneer Alan Aldridge, whose company used to occupy the former cattle market building, was unhappy at the plans.

He said: "When Kennet was first talking about redeveloping the area, they told me that there was no room for an auction business in their plans for the retail development.

"I would be very disappointed if there are to be no shops in the area, which would enhance the centre of town and attract more visitors."

But the proposal for homes has found some support.

The Chamber of Commerce was never happy about having shops at the North Gate as it believed they would attract customers away from the main shopping area of The Brittox, Maryport Street and Sidmouth Street.

District councillor Margaret Taylor welcomed a retirement development on the former cattle market site.

She said: "It is a good location for accommodation as it is so close to shops and other facilities "

Contracts have been exchanged on the cattle market site and a planning application is expected soon. Although the developers have not been named, they are thought to be McCarthy and Stone, which has recently built similar developments in Marlborough and Melksham.

Planning permission has already been granted to McCarthy and Stone and Lattice Holdings, the property arm of British Gas, for a 42-unit block of sheltered flats on the former gas holder site by the Kennet and Avon Canal at the Wharf.

The vacant lot on Northgate Street is being auctioned at the Swindon Hilton Hotel on Wednesday, March 2.