PLANS to build a town centre car park on the ATS site in Tavistock's Parkwood Road have fallen flat after the tyre company backed out at the last minute.

The scheme has been in negotiation for several years.

West Devon Borough council hoped ATS would move to a larger, council-owned site on Plymouth Road, to allow construction of the 30-space car park early next year.

David Langley, managing director of ATS Western Ltd, said: 'We said we would give the Biffa site consideration — that process went through with due diligence but nothing was ever signed.

'We watched very carefully the changes to the road scheme in Tavistock and we took on board our customers' concerns. It was never, ever a done deal.

'People must understand that we actually own our premises and have done since we bought them from Radmores — they're nothing to do with the council.'

Mr Langley said he had a great deal of sympathy for Dolvin Road residents who had been promised car parking by the council.

'They simply shouldn't have made that promise without first having the deal,' he said.

Mr Langley said ATS was concerned about 'dreadful' congestion in Plymouth Road and difficulties for drivers exiting and entering the Biffa site.

He said the company listened 'very, very carefully' to the views of its customers who all wanted ATS to stay in the town centre — he felt traders also wanted to see the company stay put.

ATS now plan to refurbish their Parkwood Road premises and will submit a planning application for the rebuild by the end of the year.

David Inman, the borough council's deputy chief executive, said: 'We have done everything we could humanly do to deliver that scheme — at the end of the day if the vendors won't sell, they won't sell, but it's very disappointing after all this length of time that they have changed their mind so dramatically.'

He admitted there was no contractual exchange between the parties but 'an awful lot of paperwork' had been completed.

At the end of July this year, a joint press release by ATS and the borough council was issued stating the car park would be ready early next year.

But Mr Langley said 'things have moved on since then'.

Mr Inman said Dolvin Road residents have been issued with parking permits for council car parks including those at Brook Street and Abbey Rise — the council would continue to look for suitable sites and the permit scheme would 'dovetail' with any new car park.

He said a car park at the Abbey Garage site would not be economically viable to construct and confirmed the borough is interested in the town council-owned Unigate site in Market Street.

The site is flat and central and would only provide a maximum of twelve car parking spaces.

The council's finance committee will consider options at the end of November.

Cllr Nick Morgan, chairman of the borough's planning and strategic development committee, said the news was a 'bit of a shock'.

'The council has been committed all the way along over this — we were more than surprised that the ATS people actually pulled out at such a late stage.

'We were basically waiting for them to sign all the paper work,' said Cllr Morgan.

Ward member Cllr Caroline Keane said she was disappointed there would be no extra parking, but welcomed a 'revamp' of the ATS building.

Since Tavistock's new bridge and relief road was built, Dolvin Road residents have only been able to park outside their houses on Sundays.

Resident Penelope Barclay said the news was 'frustrating', while Brian Evans said the relief road had been 'nothing but a pain' to people living in the road.

The ATS car park proposal was part of the borough plans to boost the eastern end of the town.

A similar scheme at the other end of town in Russell Street opened two years ago.