MARKET traders have criticised Vale Royal Borough Council after they were forced to lose a day of their Easter trade.

In the past, Good Friday's market has been brought forward a day, to Thursday. But this year the borough council cancelled the market altogether.

Chairman of the Northwich branch of the National Market Traders Federation, Brendan Kay-Spruce said: "It's so unfair the way it was done - with no consultation or vote taken with our committee or the traders. It's annoying.

"Some traders will have lost out more than others with sales of Easter gifts. And the council will have lost their income.

"They're always saying they're strapped for cash and then they go and do this.

"And no one knew about the cancellation until just over a week prior to the bank holiday when Vale Royal put some signs up.

"We would like to apologise to both the traders and the general public."

Denis McGann, who runs Denis' Fruit and Veg stall, set his stall out as usual on Thursday, to find most other traders were not doing the same.

Denis told the Guardian: "There have been so many customers looking for the market including an old lady from Barnton who came down on crutches.

"She can't afford to come back on Saturday now because she only has so much money for the bus fare."

This is the first time this has happened and while the Northwich committee understands that a change in timetable usually means fewer stalls due to traders' other commitments, it thinks the way they have been treated will put them off coming to Northwich in the future.

"It does pose a slight risk to the market in general," added Brendan.

"There's little action traders can take because it's so difficult getting a united front with their responsibilities with other markets.

"Some may think about not trading here any longer.

"There may be a minimum number of stalls that make the market viable but we're all businesses, operating with financial restraints."

A spokesman from Vale Royal Borough Council said: "The number of traders attending on a Thursday has been dwindling for the past few years to the point where last year there were only 10, which is about a quarter of the regular market.

"It was felt that it would not be viable for a market to be held due to the dwindling numbers.

"All traders were informed individually at least two weeks before the alteration and we did not receive any complaints until Tuesday of last week, two days before, which was too late for anything to be done."