LEDBURY Town Council is in advanced discussions over plans to hand over the town’s ancient Tuesday Market to a manager, but the response from the stall traders has been mixed.

A Charter Working Group meeting, held earlier this month, discussed ambitious proposals to eventually fill the space under the Market House with stalls, and to have two rows of stalls immediately outside the covered area.

But plant trader David Nellist said: “We don’t want a manager, and we have not been wellinformed.

No one talks to us. We get talked to after the fact.

“I’ve been here 20 years and seen traders come and go. I can’t see it making any difference.”

Mr Nellist was also concerned that a manager appointed by the town council could cost money.

Vegetable trader, Abbi Vincent- Lloyd said she was “not sure”

about the idea, but hoped it would be a good change.

The Tuesday market at present regularly attracts up to six or seven traders, and she said: “It is improving, with more stalls and more variety.”

Jewellery trader Georgina Hawkins said the idea of a manager was “an excellent idea!” She said: “The more stalls, the more that will bring people into Ledbury.”

Herefordshire councillor for Ledbury Liz Harvey, who attended the Charter Working Group meeting, said: “I was very pleased to hear a report from the proposed manager in which he outlined his intended approach to the gradual build-up of the market, should he be engaged by the town council.

“He was recommending that stall holdings should be build up initially under the Market House, only extending into the external market area as footfall increased and the market blossomed.”

Former Deputy Mayor Coun Tony Bradford said: “It would be very good for the town.”

Town clerk Karen Mitchell stressed no Charter Market manager had yet been appointed.