A MARKET place could be created in the centre of Skipton High Street and the road relocated to run down either side of it.

Local residents are being given the opportunity to help decide whether schemes like this would improve the traffic flow and create safe routes for pedestrians through the town.

This week all households in Skipton should have received plans to reform traffic management and residents are being asked to select schemes they think will be successful.

Among the most radical ideas is to move the market setts north of Otley Street to create a "market place" in the centre of the High Street.

The speed limit on the road running both sides of it would be reduced to 20mph and additional raised pedestrian crossing points would be installed to keep speeds low.

These ideas to rationalise the space on the High Street form Option C of the strategy's survey, which includes two alternative concepts.

Concept one will be to maintain the layout of the High Street and the market stalls, but to improve pedestrian crossing points and introduce a footway between the stalls and the road. Concept two is to move the setts to the centre of the High Street and run the road either side of it.

Ron Knox, from the Market Traders' Association, said: "I don't think that this has been thought through at all."

He asked whether the High Street shops would be compensated for the removal of their sett space, for which they receive rent, and how the Civic Society felt about the removal of the cobbles.

He said access to the new market place would be difficult as shoppers would have to cross the road from the shops and back again to visit it, in particular making access difficult for the disabled.

Mr Knox added that there was no room in the centre of the road for the stalls at the top of the High Street and wondered where they would go. He was disappointed that market traders had not been involved in the drawing up of these plans.