Traders in Shipley say they fear town’s historic market is under threat as a feasibility study is carried out by Bradford Council.

Stallholders claim the Council is seeking to move the market to the town’s pedestrianised shopping area and replace its fixed wooden stalls with gazebo-style ones.

The authority has confirmed a study on the “future direction” of the market was under way but it denied there were any firm plans to relocate it, although that was among the options.

Traders, however, believe they will eventually be required to put up their own stalls, which will lead to the market’s demise.

Ian Chappell, who travels to the market three times a week from Selby, said gazebos would not be suitable in bad weather and would prove too costly for the Council to provide in the long term.

He said: “They will offer to put up the gazebos to start with but eventually that won’t be cost-effective. If the market moves eventually I’ll have to stop coming.

“Putting up stalls will make life a lot harder on bad days – if you are coming a distance you won’t bother coming. The market is struggling as it is.”

Another trader, who did not want to be named, said: “These stalls are going to come down. Eventually the market will go. Long term there’s no provision for any market stalls. Most people are not going to come here at 5am or 6am and erect a stall and stand all day wet through, then take it down and put it up the following morning. It’s ludicrous.”

John Priestley, who has been trading at the market for almost 30 years, said: “It’s all right for somebody who’s young but there’s a lot of women on this market and they won’t be able to put stalls up themselves.”

A female trader, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “The older people won’t want to be putting up stalls.

“They say at first they are going to supply stalls but they are going to do away with that. Customers don’t want that, they like it here. They don’t want it moving.

“I just won’t come. It’s not worth my while.”

Bradford Council’s markets manager Colin Wolstenholme said: “There are no plans to relocate Shipley Market. A feasibility study on the future direction for the market is being carried out which will look at a range of options and how this may add value to the existing businesses in the town centre.

“Among the options are leaving the market where it is or moving it to the pedestrianised area. We are a long way off making any decisions on this and the market traders themselves will be fully consulted.”

Councillor Kevin Warnes (Green, Shipley) said he was not aware of any plans to move the market.

He said: “This would be a big change for Shipley town centre and it would be a change that would require consultation with all stakeholders including councillors and local businesses. We would have concerns if anything was done in a way that didn’t attract a fair degree of community support."