TAVISTOCK Town Council confirmed this week that it was not selling the cattle market to Waitrose, despite rumours to the contrary.

But it is working with a development company to try and enhance the pannier market for shopping and tourism.

Town clerk Roger Howard said the cattle market, which was owned by the town council and run by Ward and Chowen, was an important part of the market town of Tavistock and there was no intention of selling it to anyone.

'We like our cattle market and have absolutely no intention of selling it,' he said. 'The current lease continues for another ten or twelve years anyway.

'We are aware that Waitrose has an interest in Tavistock and would dearly love to have a medium-sized store here, but we have nothing to sell for that purpose. I think the company approached us because it thought we had more land than we did.'

Communications officer for Waitrose James Armstrong said: 'We are certainly keen to open a store in Tavistock in the future, however, we have not identified a site to progress further at this time.'

Meanwhile, the town council will be holding an open day on January 22 where ideas to enhance the pannier market area will be on display, including extending the trading area into the Market Road area

and putting a walkway/decking over the river with open door cafés.

Mr Howard said: 'We are looking at ways of improving the retail viability of the town and from our point of view the pannier market is the jewel in Tavistock's crown. It is thriving and we want to make it even more attractive.

'The open day is a chance for people to come and look at the ideas from Mercian Developments and we welcome any ideas the public have as well.'

Mercian Developments has for the past 30 years been involved in the large scale mixed use developments involving retail, industrial and residential enterprise. It confirmed to the Times this week that it had also put forward a proposal to the public enquiry into West Devon Borough Council's core strategy for a mixed use site on the outskirts of Tavistock to promote more employment land.

The company's managing director Chris Towers said Tavistock had a lot of potential: 'We are looking at feasibility studies at the moment but the pannier market is a great facility for Tavistock and we believe there is opportunity to enhance it with a thoroughfare around the central market area.

'There is a waiting list of traders who want to come to Tavistock pannier market — a lot of towns are very jealous of it.'