Plans for a Sunday market in Coventry are being recommended for approval despite the fury of traders at Coventry Retail Market.

The City Centre Company has offered stalls at a discount price to any of the traders worried by the impact of the Sunday market on their business.

Coventry Retail Market traders claim they lost 40 per cent of business when the Sunday market ran at Christmas compared to the previous year.

They say the construction work in the Lower Precinct would put them at a disadvantage, and many traders cannot operate seven days a week because they are small family businesses.

Plans outlining the proposals are to go before Coventry City Council’s Planning Committee on Wednesday.

The City Centre Company wants to have stalls throughout the pedestrianised areas in Market Way, Smithford Way, Precinct, Shelton Square, Bull Yard and Hertford Street.

A survey has shown that the market before Christmas in Bond Street attracted 10,000 people, with around a quarter coming from outside Coventry.

Up to 20 per cent of the visitors said they did not regularly shop in the city, and 70 per cent said that did not regularly shop in Coventry on a Sunday.

Almost nine out of ten of those who took part in the survey said they would return to a similar event.

Head of Development Regulation David Giles told councillors in a report:

“Sunday trading is becoming an increasingly necessary part of a successful shopping location.

“It is considered that the level and variety of attractions need to be enhanced if the success of the current Sunday trading is to be built upon to maintain Coventry’s position as a regional shopping destination.”

He added that the market would need to run for a longer period than the pre-Christmas rush to see how what impact it would have.

But he said that complaints about the impact of the market on Coventry Retail Market were not relevant to the planning issues.

He said the concerns “primarily relate to trading competition and the Market Charter”.