Seats have been stripped from the closed Regent cinema in Wantage - dashing hopes that films will ever be shown there again.

Campaigners have spent the past 18 months trying to bring back movies to the town, but now fear they have reached the end of the line.

A clearance operation at the premises in Newbury Street has taken place in recent days, with seats and other equipment being stripped out. The move by the building's owner - the Oxford Development Group - follows the latest of three unsuccessful planning applications to convert the building into flats.

Campaigner Jim Moley said claims the cinema would always lose money had been denied by experts questioned by the Vale of White Horse District Council.

Mr Moley, a town, district and county councillor, said: "I'm saddened and shocked by this stripping-out process, after offers for the cinema lease have been turned down."

But Matthew Green, of Green and Co, the Wantage-based agent for the owner, said: "It's not viable, and it's more expensive to run than people think.

"There have been people interested in resuming the use of the cinema - until they do their sums, and then they walk away."