Market Woes

1.01.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 7th Sep 2009

Leicester Market

Labour run Leicester City Council has given a private company permission to run a market with up to 150 stalls at the Walkers Stadium on Sundays and bank holidays from October. When the plan was announced last week, furious market stallholders said in the local press that it would put a "nail in the coffin" of Leicester's 700-year-old market.

Leicester Liberal Democrat Group leader Peter Coley said: "If goods on sale at the stadium duplicate anything being sold in our ancient city centre market then city traders will undoubtedly suffer and if they fail ,we are all losers. This potentially damaging proposal should have been fully discussed with all parties before any agreements were made"

A previous attempt to hold a market at the Walkers failed after less than three months. In October 2006, more than 5,000 people turned up for the first Sunday market but by July 2007 it was scrapped, with traders saying it had degenerated into a car boot sale.