ANOTHER of Marlborough's old established family businesses, Bell's Garage, could disappear from the town centre.

The Cady family, which has owned the garage for 60 years, is considering building four town houses on the workshop site behind the High Street.

However, it would not be the end of the road for the garage, a spokeswoman said yesterday.

She said: "This is something for the future, something that is being looked into. This is certainly not the end of the garage."

Bells garage stands in the narrow part of the High Street on the north side of St Peter's Church. The metal roofed workshop is accessed through an archway at the side of the garage showroom.

The proposal is to build the four town houses with garages on the site of the workshop utilising the same arched entrance. The showroom at the front of the premises would become a shop with two flats above.

On Monday members of the town council's planning committee decided reluctantly to raise no objection to the garage plans.

Coun Dr David Watson said he was not at all in favour of the scheme because it would mean the town centre losing another of its services. Bells has been the only garage and car showroom in the High Street since Herd and Leaders Garage closed more than 20 years ago and is now WH Smith's shop.

Coun Watson asked: "Do we want to turn this area into nice little houses and forget all the services that a town like this requires?"

A report from the family's agent said the site was small for a garage and the access was poor. It said the trend was for secondhand car sales to locate on large visible sites.

The report also said that modern car workshops needed to offer a full range of repair services, including car spraying. "These types of operation are not appropriate in a terraced building where the surrounding buildings are residential," said the report.