WORCESTER traders have welcomed the news that plans to abolish imperial measures have been shelved.

The EU had set a deadline of 2009 for metric measures such as kilograms to replace Britain's traditional imperial measurements, such as pounds and ounces.

Currently, all loose goods sold with reference to units of quantity have to be weighed and sold using the metric system. However, imperial measurements may also be displayed as extra information.

Under the original plans, it would have been illegal to still display the imperial measure from 1 January, 2010.

But after lobbying from the Conservative Party and the Metric Martyrs campaign group, the European Commission's Industry Commissioner Gunther Verheugen has said the dual marking of goods in imperial and metric will continue indefinitely.

Mark Kent, area manager of Housewives Choice fruiterers in Church Street, Worcester, said most of his customers still wanted to see things in pounds and ounces.

"This is good news - after all, why fix something that isn't broke?" he said.

"We do have to mark things up in both imperial and metric but a lot of the time it leads to confusion. People see the more expensive price for the metric weight and it can put them off."

Glenys Patrick, who runs the fruit and vegetable stall in Angel Place, said she was still annoyed the weights system had been messed about in the first place. "We were all made to shell out on scales that gave both imperial and metric weights. It just serves to confuse people - everyone was happy with pounds and ounces."

But Matthew Nelmes, owner of M&M Meats in St Nicholas Street said it wouldn't affect him as everything he stocked was now labelled in metric.

"However, older customers still tended to ask for things in pounds and ounces," he said. "I don't think younger customers mind so much as they just buy things on what it looks like - they see five pork chops in a pack rather than the weight."

The amendment allowing dual labelling indefinitely will be put forward this year.

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