Devizes Town Council is sprucing up The Shambles with a facelift likely to cost at least £10,000 – and which will rid the indoor market of the problem of its smell of cooking.

Shambles traders have been campaigning for months for an extractor system to be put in to remove the fumes of cooking fat from the café, which is off-putting to some shoppers.

Now the council is to install a new extractor system at a cost of just under £6,000.

The council is also to spend £2,500 on installing picture rails into The Shambles so that the market can be made more attractive and more makeover money will be spent on new signs at the front and back of the market to direct shoppers.

Further council funding will go on adding to The Shambles visitor boards which will tell the history of the market and the surrounding area, which are being planned in consultation with Devizes Museum director David Dawson and a professional graphic designer.

At a meeting of the recreation and properties committee, councillors were also told that following a deep-clean of The Shambles at Christmas, council staff have now been supplied with new cleaning equipment to ensure that the building is regularly kept neat and tidy.

In a report to the committee, the town clerk revealed: “The top half of the Shambles is very buoyant. A number of traders have mentioned to the market manager how well they are doing, and what their takings are.

“The occupancy rate is still at 100 per cent with new and diverse applications. Officers advertised on Facebook for new business renters, and have had no difficulty renting units when it is known one is about to become clear.

“The Thursday Shambles lower end occupancy is currently averaging 71.1 per cent with our regular traders, but this will increase as we move into summer. A number of traders indicate that the visitor numbers have returned to pre-Covid19 numbers, and their takings too. The Saturday Shambles lower end occupancy is running at 82.2 per cent.”

The market now has three more permanent traders; selling vinyl records and music memorabilia, women’s clothing and make up and vintage denim.

This Saturday sees the return of the farmers’ market in the Market Place. Traders and producers come from a 30-mile radius of Devizes and they have either grown, reared or made their products, generally using local grown or reared ingredients.