TRADERS at Malvern's Friday Market are digging their heels in to stay at the Avenue Road site.

The stallholders have launched a weekly draw to help bring back customers to the Council House car park.

Malvern Hills District Council had hoped to move the market to Abbey Gateway, after an order to close that road on Fridays and Saturdays was approved.

Ken Woods, of Poolbrook, who has sold bread and cakes at the market for two years, said: "We're trying to keep the market in the town.

"A lot of our elderly customers come in the car and buy heavy goods, so they need somewhere to park."

Mr Woods said that he and other traders felt that moving the market would put them in competition with long-established businesses on Abbey Road.

"There's pressure from the council to move but we're digging our feet in. We're not going to."

In a bid to boost the number of customers, traders are offering a weekly draw where the winner receives £10 of goods from every stall.

"We're all just trying to think of ways to save it. We don't want to lose another market," said Mr Woods, who also has a stall at Ledbury and Tewkesbury markets and feels Malvern is the worst supported of the three.

Town centre manager Anthony Collis said the location of the Friday market would be discussed at a town centre partnership meeting this month.

Council leader Tom Wells said: "I think we would want to work with the market traders as far as possible."

He said the monthly Saturday farmers' market had been hugely successful since it moved to the Abbey Gateway in August.