Drayton traders in quit row over market stall parking

A row has broken out between market traders, who are threatening to "pack it all in", and council chiefs over parking rules at a Market Drayton car park.

Some traders using Market Drayton Indoor Market Hall have threatened to shut their stalls after Shropshire Council warned them to comply with parking rules ahead of a crackdown starting next week.

Traders have received a letter from the unitary council telling them not to misuse the short-stay Frogmore Road car park as it was leaving shoppers with nowhere to park.

Dot Llewellyn, who has a cooked meat stall on the indoor market, said the letter warns stallholders they must move their car within three hours as some traders parking there all day were preventing shoppers from finding spaces.

She said: "I'm all right because somebody else works with me and I can leave the stall but some of the girls who run stalls by themselves were very disheartened about it.

"They said it was another nail in the coffin for Market Drayton and that they were thinking of packing it all in."

She said traders had been asked to park at Towers Lawn instead, which is further away.

Laura Owen, spokeswoman for Shropshire Council, said: "The Frogmore Road car park is a short-stay car park designed to be for shoppers.

"It has come to our attention that a number of drivers are abusing this and parking for six hours and that most of these are market stallholders. Therefore, we have written to them to advise that we will be enforcing the car park restrictions as they stand at present.

"The aim of having short-stay car parks is that it increases the availability of space for shoppers."