THE Palace Cinema and Angel Bingo hall are being offered for sale to breweries by boss John Angel.

Mr Angel insisted this week the cinema and bingo hall, housed in the same building in the Market Place, Devizes, were not for sale.

But the Gazette has learned that Mr Angel contacted a local brewery firm last week offering it for sale. A company called Raymond Clarke Productions Ltd, acting on behalf of Mr Angel, wrote to the brewery offering it the cinema site and claiming it would be ideal for conversion into a theme pub.

The letter read: "The property has attracted the interest of two other leading brewery companies and it occurred to us that you might consider it to acquire it yourself.''

The brewery has indicated to the Gazette that it is not interested.

Mr Angel told the Gazette he had only made the approach after another brewery made an offer for the building.

He said: "A brewery approached us saying they would be interested in purchasing the freehold of the building. Their offer wasn't acceptable. I told them it is not enough money. Raymond Clarke Productions approached a local brewery to see if they would be interested in buying it if the building was for sale. The property is not for sale but if someone came in with an offer for £1million I would consider it.

"We are trading at a profit. We receive offers from people occasionally."

Mr Angel would not expand on his plans for the cinema and bingo hall except to say the building was not for sale and if the Gazette said otherwise he would sue.

On Tuesday the Gazette contacted Michael Taylor, of Warwick-based Raymond Clarke Productions Ltd, posing as a prospective buyer.

Mr Taylor offered us the building for sale for £750,000 and suggested looking round the site while pretending to be a surveyor so staff there wouldn't suspect what was going on.

Mr Taylor, who describes himself as the selling agent for Mr Angel, said he had advised the owner to sell his cinemas because his empire was stretched too far.

He said the firm's cinema in Cirencester could be purchased for £1.5million.

He said of the Palace Cinema in Devizes: "I had a look round there and I thought what a splendid theme pub it would make.''

He said Mr Angel has received an offer of £700,000 from JD Wetherspoon for the building. "He wants more than that. The price is £750,000,'' he said.

He said the owner had also had an offer from another company which wanted to buy the building outright and lease back the cinema to him to continue running it.

''He doesn't want to do that,'' he said. "He doesn't want to carry on running a cinema.''

Mr Taylor said he thought there would be few problems in converting the cinema and bingo hall to a pub. "It's a very small change from bingo to boozing.''

He said we should visit the cinema. "Tell the staff Mr Angel has suggested you look around,'' he said. ''You could tell them you are a surveyor.''

Stephen Brazier, the chairman of Devizes Festival, had this week booked the cinema to screen Citizen Kane for next year's Devizes Festival. He said: "All cinema-goers would be concerned if it was up for sale. We need a cinema in Devizes, I don't think a pub in that building would be a good idea."

Cinema and bingo hall staff said they had not been told of prospective buyers.

A spokesman for JD Wetherspoon could not confirm if the company was interested in the cinema but said it was looking to open a pub in Devizes.

The spokesman said: "We have been looking at properties in Devizes over a number of years. We definitely want to open a pub in Devizes and we will be going to look at a couple of new properties soon."