Oswestry Town councillors have described the decline in the Wednesday market as 'frightening'.

The Wednesday markets have seen a decrease of £55 per week in income since last year's market.

At last week's Town Centre, Markets and Services committee, councillors discussed the decline which saw income totals of £6,631 compared to the £9,079 which they received last year.

Councillor Paul Milner, chairman of the committee, described the change in increase as frightening, whereas others noted that the decline was most likely down to the adverse weather conditions.

The Wednesday market was cancelled three times between December to February because of wet weather.

Cllr Duncan Kerr, said: "There will always be an annual trend, and we expect some times throughout the year to do better than others.

"We can't control the weather unfortunately. But I do believe we need to monitor this, as it could be quite serious."

However the Saturday markets have seen an increase of £5 per week, which councillors agreed was helped by moving the market down Bailey Street.

Cllr Milner added: "These figures shows the importance of moving the market down the street. Oswestry is a market town at the end of the day and the change is clearly having an effect."

The Artisan Market has also seen an increase in sales, receiving an increase of £90 per month.

Town mayor Cllr Vince Hunt said: "There is a continuing theme of the Artisan Market being a very positive fixture in Oswestry, and there are definitely lessons to be learnt from the event."

Markets manager David Clough said that trend had been bucked on Saturdays.

He added: "We have a lot of part-time traders who work in the week and then trade on Saturday, so are unable to attend Wednesday markets.

"This explains the difference, and it is understandable when the trade goes down in weather.

"We also have more traditional traders in on Wednesdays, where as Saturday tend to see more food and produce stalls."

Cllr Mike Isherwood said the markets are a great showcase of what Oswestry has to offer.

"Since being elected I have seen the hard work the David Clough and Arren Roberts put in to improve the markets," he said.

"It''s a great showcase for our town."