THORNBURY'S Saturday market in the town's St Mary Street car park is no more.

Operators have decided to close down the operation after almost five years because of declining interest from stallholders and the public at large.

"Im afraid the market is finished," said Doug Cotton, spokesman for Moreton-in-Marsh-based market operators Grenchurch Ltd.

"It maintained a good level of business for quite a while and at one point it was attracting as many as 40 stalls. But trade dropped off and in the end we were down to half a dozen stalls. There's no particular reason you can put your finger on. Sometimes things just go that way. The time had come to call it a day and the last market was held on the last Saturday before Christmas."

He said some traders wished to maintain a presence in the town and were seeking permission to continue trading independently.

The Saturday market got off to a bad start when it was revived in 2000.

Saturday takings because of cut-price competition from market stallholders with minimal overheads.

Owners of businesses in St Mary Street also claimed that the layout of the market and the loss of the St Mary Street car park would have a serious effect on the trade.

St Mary shopping centre manager Tony Wilcock said the demise of the market would not affect town centre trade.

"At one stage it was an added attraction which probably did help to attact more people into the town but it's been on the decline for some time and losing the last few stalls isn't go to have any noticeable effect" he said.