THE demolition of one of Tavistock's more distinctive buildings has provoked disappointment in the town.

The old Unigate dairy in Market Road was recently acquired for development by Trathen and Goode as retail and residential units.

Although West Devon planners and the town council expected most of the building to be demolished, the wall overlooking Market Street was supposed to remain standing.

However, when holes were punched in the structure for new shop fronts, much of the wall collapsed. The rest was demolished at the end of January.

Alex Mettler of Tavistock History Society, said: 'Personally, I feel it shouldn't happen in a conservation area. People come to Tavistock because it's a nice place. And the reason it's a nice place is because of the buildings.'

Mr Mettler said the building was erected on the site of an old malt house in 1866 by the Duke of Bedford.

'It was quite a nice building and was kept in its original state right up until Unigate got rid of it. It was then empty for a few years until the recyclers moved there, but it wasn't necessary to knock it down.

'It could easily have been restored if they'd got themselves a good architect. What are we going to get now? A pre-cast concrete breeze block pile of junk?'

Hugh Davies of the local Council for the Protection of Rural England said: 'Any evidence of Tavistock's industrial past is important and ought not to be destroyed, but that's obviously what they've done.

'I realise you can't preserve everything, but the original building could have been incorporated in a more modern building.'

West Devon planning officer Edward Persse said, in considering the original plan, the façade was felt to be important and should be retained. The new roof needed to pick up on the original roof structure, including the vents, and the original windows were to be preserved, though truncated.

'However, when they started to do the work, part of the wall came down when the holes were being knocked through,' he said.

Mr Persse added that it was prudent to remove a certain amount of the wall, but the whole thing was taken down before an application for retrospective conservation area consent was received.

'We need to make the best of a job that has gone wrong. It's a very regrettable situation — we would far rather have had the wall kept, but we have now got to get a practicable solution that preserves the character of the conservation area and the building that was there,' he said.

West Devon planners and the developers have agreed the wall will be clad with the original stone and brickworks — new bricks would have to be approved — and are agreeing details of the mortar.

Developer David Trathen said the original building was too long and narrow to be much use as it was.

'The only thing worth keeping was the main wall. We tried to keep it, but it was deemed unsafe by our structural engineer after we cut some large apertures in it. As we cut more holes in it, it crumbled away,' he said.

'We do intend, as close as we can, to rebuild it to what it was before.'