TRADERS protesting against an extra day's trading at a town centre market have been told to pull their weight or quit their stalls.

The row over new rules forcing stallholders on Clitheroe Market to trade on Thursdays erupted again in the council chambers where West Bradford woman Richenda Ratcliffe presented councillors with a 2,000-name petition opposing the plan.

The Ribble Valley Council wants the market to operate on Thursdays, as well as Tuesdays and Saturdays, in an attempt to boost flagging attendances.

The controversial scheme has split traders and councillors over whether it is fair and workable.

And rebel traders have been told by council chiefs to start pulling their weight on Thursdays or quit.

Mrs Ratcliffe told a council meeting that hard-working traders "weren't being given a fair chance".

"There is more to market-trading than just turning up at 9am, especially if you are dealing in perishable goods. Traders are being told to work Thursdays or quit. Is this fair?" she said. Grocer Richard Burney told the meeting that he found it impossible to attend the market on Thursdays.

"It is tradition for traders to travel to other markets. We can't operate on an open-all-hours basis. My father is 72 and started our business 50 years. He has never had so much as a parking ticket and is now being threatened with disciplinary action by the council. We want these threats to stop," he said.

But chairman of Ribble Valley Council's community committee Graham Sowter said he disagreed with the nature of the petition and rebuked Mrs Ratcliffe for "not listening to all sides of the story".

He said: "It was agreed by traders after consultation that there would be a third market day. It has never been foisted on them. It is misleading to talk of compulsion or coercion.

"No market runs on a turn-up-at-will basis. The council invested a million pounds in the market and we are all going to have to pull together to make it a success."

Shoe trader John White said the market would be "hamstrung" if stalls were not fully occupied.

"We must not let the market drift into oblivion by not giving Thursdays a fair chance," he said.

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