West Dorset district council was criticised at the meeting for taking so long to agree there was no chance of a shopping centre on Charles Street, having spent millions of pounds on the way: “Brewery Square and Poundbury did what they wanted and got on with it. If you were a business you would be bust by now,” said one man.

Barry Thompson from Dorchester Labour welcomed the plans not to redevelop the Fairfield and shared the concerns about businesses closing down – he said he had counted 33 closed shops in the town centre, two more than he counted a year ago.

Travel author Roland Tarr claimed that “retail has had its day” – and suggested Dorchester and the surrounding villages capitalise on history, archaeology, geology, walks and cycle routes as a way of attracting new visitors. He said the council had missed opportunities in the past. Referring to the Wollaston Road car park he said: “We dug up the Roman baths and then buried them again. What town does that?”

He warned that parking throughout Dorchester needed to be sorted out – claiming that the councils had allowed town centre workers to park in front of people’s houses for more than twenty years because they had failed to come up with any other solution.

“The whole town needs to be controlled, otherwise all it does is move the problem onto someone else,” he said.

Dorchester councillor Alistair Chisholm claimed the council could have spent more time listening to local people, and to businesses: “Have you considered the effect on Brewery Square? The developers there have done more for this town than the district council has done in its lifetime,” he said.

He also claimed that the council, once again, appeared to have made up its mind what it wanted to do, rather than taking people’s views in the first place. Council development director Martin Hamilton assured him that this was not the case and only after the October public consultation would firm proposals be put forward.

Other speakers mentioned bringing the tourist information centre back to its old site; sorting out the bus stops in Trinity Street and the lack of push chair and disabled access to both town rail stations.

One man suggested the town might have been better off had the council simply spent some of its money publicising Dorchester, rather than continually trying for shopping centres which no one seemed to want.