GREENGROCER Tony May fears changes to the Shambles indoor market in Devizes will be the end of a family business which has been running for 19 years.

Wiltshire Council wants to do away with the traditional stalls at far end of the market and replace them with lock-up units.

Businesses taking units will have to sign a contract saying they will trade at least five days a week.

But at the moment Mr May only opens his stall on Thursdays and Saturdays and said he cannot afford to open extra days.

He said: "Business is not what it was so I have had to get a driving job for most of the week to make ends meet. For the past ten years there has been a steady decline in quality traders and with it income.

"Market managers have failed to listen to what traders have had to say treated us with arrogance and contempt. There has been no investment and little thought put into how small traders were going to survive through difficult times.

"Footfall on Thursdays is ok but Saturday is awful with as low a number as 300 passing through the building."

He is worried about the future of the building if loyal traders were forced out.

He said: "This grand old building will be half full of what will look like a row of empty garages with a few fringe or niche businesses in them providing little or no benefit to the majority of shoppers in Devizes."

Town councillor Albert Wooldridge, who was one of only two councillors to object to the Shambles planning application, said: "This is why I spoke out against the plan.

"A majority of stallholders and a majority of shoppers said they did not want the change to happen."

But town councillor Sue Evans, who also represents Devizes on Wiltshire Council, said: "The idea of the scheme is to bring new life to the Shambles. It will be an opportunity for small businesses to have a space in the town centre at a low rent.

"We have seen a number of shops closing recently because of high overheads and this is a worry." She said she expected the work on improving the building and putting in the new units to start in the summer.

Deputy town clerk Simon Fisher said that the project was the idea of Wiltshire Council but had the backing of the town council.

He said: "It is important for work to be carried out on the building as it has become scruffy. Shoppers do not get the right impression when the building is half empty on a number of days a week as it is at present."