THE much-maligned former Co-op building in the Market Place is living on borrowed time after Kennet councillors approved a bold new scheme to redevelop the area of the North Gate.

They have selected a bid by Bath-based developers Phoenicia Barr, which proposes to demolish the unloved 1936 "brutalist" design and replace it with something more sympathetic to surrounding Victorian and Edwardian buildings.

The scheme, one of seven bids received by Kennet from developers throughout the south and west of England, also proposes a row of three and four-storey town houses and office buildings, described as home and work units, along New Park Street, on the site of the former cattle market and Devizes Motor Company.

But some eyebrows may be raised by the inclusion of a three-storey residential development by McCarthy and Stone, nationally known for their sheltered developments for older people. It has been said that the need in Devizes is for more housing for younger, rather than older people.

Kennet District Council announced the sale of the site to Phoenicia Barr on Tuesday, following a special meeting of the council's resources policy committee on Monday at which recommendations made by a working party of councillors were considered.

The council marketed the site following the preparation of a development brief commissioned from architects Lyons, Sleeman and Hoare. The Phoenicia Barr bid bears a strong resemblance to the development brief, right down to 32 public car parking spaces.

Coun Jerry Willmott, who recently stood down as leader of the council but still retains the chairmanship of the resources policy committee, said: "I am delighted to announce that Phoenicia Barr met the development brief and made the highest financial offer.

"Clearly nothing can be certain in the commercial world, but the district council is very hopeful and very pleased that there is every prospect of achieving a whole range of benefits for the town of Devizes.

"Perhaps more importantly, this development will demonstrate to other potential investors that Devizes is a place worthy of investment."

Although the plan submitted by Phoenicia Barr is described as "an indicative scheme" and is not necessarily the scheme that will be "built out" at the end of the planning process, it is expected to be substantially in that form.

Work will now begin to draw up plans that will go out to public consultation before being submitted to Kennet's own regulatory committee for planning permission. It is likely that they will need to go to the Secretary of State, John Prescott, for final approval.

Following the collapse of their former partnership with Heritage Property Services for the redevelopment of the North Gate and Wharf sites, Kennet is keen to forge ahead with the new North Gate scheme as soon as possible. Ron Crook, Kennet's director of community services, looks forward to seeing building begin before the end of the year. Kennet is drawing up a development brief for the Wharf area which is likely to cause more controversy.

As well as the Wharfside area itself, this development brief will also take in the site of the present Devizes Community Hospital. Although outline planning permission has been granted for a new hospital at Green Lane, it is now by no means certain that there is funding for the project.

Many consider that including the hospital site in the Wharf development brief will bring closer the eventual loss of a hospital in Devizes altogether.

Saga of the town centre

IF the successful bid by Phoenicia Barr becomes a reality, it will be third time lucky for Kennet's efforts to redevelop this part of Devizes town centre.

The first bold proposal to draw more national chain stores to the town was drawn up in 1990 when Kennet went into partnership with Kingfisher plc, the then owners of Woolworths, Superdrug and B&Q, to develop 'the Island site', based mainly on the west central car park and the cattle market.

But the recession in property prices that came to a head in 1991 put pay to the plan, which would have doubled the square footage of retail space in the town.

In the mid-1990s Kennet took the bull by the horns again and invited town planning consultant Donaldsons to recommend how the town could be regenerated.

This led to the preparation of a planning brief for the Wharf and North Gate sites and a bidding process, similar to the one just completed. The successful bidder was Heritage Property Services, appointed in April 2000. Their proposals took up Kennet's idea of uniting the town's two complementary poles of attraction, the Wharf and the Market Place, with a central retail development, including restaurants, shops and offices, and the Wharfside, where they planned a marina, amphitheatre, shops and, to make the whole proposal economically viable, homes.

Wiltshire County Council effectively threw a spanner in the works by making Kennet an offer it couldn't refuse a chance to host the new county record office which would also house the internationally famed collection of the Royal Photographic Society.

Heritage Property Services tried to make the best of a bad job but, despite the offer of developing a similar site in Pewsey, it bowed out.

Meanwhile, the Heritage Lottery Fund, without whose financial assistance the new record office is not going to be built, vetoed the inclusion of the Royal Photographic Society collection and then withdrew its support for the Devizes site. The new record office, if it is ever built, will be in Chippenham.

So Kennet officers were forced back to the drawing board and there is a lot of credibility running on the success of the Phoenicia Barr scheme.