WHAT next? That is the question on people’s lips in a Kent town, after controversial plans to regenerate it were thrown out.

Thoughts are now turning to Dartford's future after a day of celebrations following Local Government Secretary Ruth Kelly’s announcement that the Lowfield Street regeneration project – including a giant Tesco superstore, 490 new homes and a road through the town’s park – had been refused permission.

In August last year, the then-deputy council leader Jeremy Kite had said: "If it (the regeneration proposal) is rejected, we have no plan B.

"We will have to go back to the drawing board and it will be many years before we can come up with another project like it."

And after the popping of the Champagne corks in the park was over on Tuesday, residents and traders began to face the reality of this statement.

Butcher Ray Richardson, who is one of the last bastions of trade in Lowfield Street, said: "It looks like Beirut out there at the moment. It is a worry – what can be done now to try to improve things? They are worse than ever."

Mike Warren, of CTS, in Lowfield Street, was also concerned.

"The council got it wrong. They must not be allowed to leave this area derelict," he said.

Cllr Kite has pledged that work will start now on finding a solution.

He said: "Lowfield Street is in terminal decline and this process has accelerated that. We need to wipe the slate clean and start again, working together to come up with a scheme that people will accept."