REFUSAL of listed building consent to relocate a telephone kiosk in Okehampton brought the St James' Chapel enhancement to a halt last week.
Devon County Council's local service officer Mike Parnell called the delay 'extremely frustrating' and 'very costly' in staff time and finance.
BT Payphones applied for listed-building consent to move the red telephone box from the side of St James' Chapel ten yards to the back of the 13th century structure to make way for the enhancement scheme.
But fears that a slip road at the back of the chapel would never be re-opened if the telephone box was relocated there, swayed the planning committee at a meeting last week to refuse consent.
A decision to close the slip road to St James Street as part of the scheme by Devon County Council and West Devon Borough Council has met with much opposition from local shopkeepers who claim it is killing their trade.
Mr Parnell, who has always said the project was about making the area more attractive in a bid to entice shoppers, feels the enhancement will no longer have the same impact with the telephone kiosk staying where it is.
He said the plan was if you stood on one side of the road you would have seen a series of low steps rising up to a platform where there would be seats and a tree.
'The whole thing would be raised up out of the ground and the idea was all about elevating the chapel and enhancing it,' he said.
'The view at the moment is that we will probably have to lay the whole area flat and it will not have the same impact. It is a shame.'
The cost to move the kiosk was estimated at £5,000 but Mr Parnell said this was not a lot when you looked at the scheme as a whole and the benefits of it.
The St James' Chapel enhancement first hit problems when West Devon Borough Council's original plan was rejected by the trustees of the chapel who labelled it 'unsympathetic' to the historic building.
The scheme was later redesigned taking on board the trustees comments.
Mr Parnell said: 'This delay is extremely frustrating and very costly in staff time and finance.
'It is also disappointing when members of the partnership committee, consisting of borough and county council members including at least one member who sits on the planning committee, choose to approved the scheme.'
He said redesigning the levels would take a couple of days and the work would then re-commence.'