TRADERS in the West End of Morecambe breathed a sigh of relief this week as plans to turn their street into a Saturday market were turned down. Plans to create a non-food market operating on Yorkshire Street between 9am and 4pm every Saturday were submitted to Lancaster City Council by the Morecambe and Heysham Chamber of Trade last November. That plan was immediately opposed by traders in the West End and more than 20 letters of objection were sent to the council from shopkeepers who feared the market would damage their businesses.

This week a meeting of the council's planning committee refused to grant permission for the plans which involved a maximum of 50 stalls. A report by council planning chiefs looking into the scheme stated: "Most of the shops in Yorkshire Street are relatively small. The street is quite narrow and the market stalls would make servicing difficult. It would involve the loss of the existing on-street parking spaces while it was in progress.

"More seriously, access for emergency vehicles in a densely developed area with a mixture of residential and retail uses would be awkward."

Peter Craven of the long established Craven Bakery on Yorkshire Street was against the plans from the start. After this week's decision he told the Citizen: "I'm very pleased with this.

"The Chamber of Trade is there to help people in business not to run businesses of their own or put in plans for an area without talking to the people those plans would affect."

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