A MARKET trader has been ordered to stop selling Scotch Pancakes on his stall -- 35 years after his family started trading in the delicacy.

Now Lawrence Carter is vowing to take legal action against his council in a bid to get them to overturn their decision.

Lawrence, who runs Carter's Cheese Stall on Chorley Market, was ordered to remove the delicacy after the council decided selling them placed him in competition with rival stallholders.

But when the Lancashire Evening Telegraph took a tour of the market at the heart of the town, there wasn't a scotch pancake seller in sight.

Market bosses at Chorley Borough Council say they took their decision because the pancakes are cakes and are not covered by Lawrence's existing licence to sell cheese.

Today Lawrence stormed: "We have been selling them for 35 years and I have now got it in writing from Chorley Borough Council that I have got to take the things off.

"My customers want to buy them but I have withdrawn the product because I am not allowed to sell it."

A sign marking the passing of the pancakes has been placed outside the kiosk, complete with the letters RIP.

He added: "The council have decided in their wisdom that I can't sell them because they are classified as a cake.

"It has made me really mad, I think the council just don't want pancakes on their market.

"I haven't found anybody else selling them on the market. I can't see why the change has come about now, after some 35 years."

He added he was looking into legal action to win the right to sell his pancakes.

Paul Hallam, Chorley Borough Council's property manager, took the decision to ban the pancakes.

He said: "Mr Carter asked for several additional selling lines to be added to his market licence.

"The council was prepared to go along with all of them except the Scotch pancakes.

"It is a line which could be sold from the adjoining stall." Councillor Kerry Jones, Chorley Borough Council's executive member for commercial development and property, said: "Someone complained that another stall-holder was selling something they sold.

"We do have strict rules -- we do have to act. They do have to sell according to their licence."

Traders across East Lancashire have been left baffled by the unusual decisions made by bureaucrats.

In Hyndburn, an Accrington Market greetings card stall holder was left fuming by the fact traders on the Sunday market could sell what they wanted but he had to apply to a new licence if he wanted to sell a line of products on his weekday market.

A spokesman for the council said: "Rules have to be followed and weekday traders can only sell what they are licensed too."

And traders across the area have been threatened with legal action if they don't comply with new European metric rules. Several have vowed to carry on using imperial measures because it is what their customers want.