A DETAILED study into pannier market traders' parking requirements is to be carried out in Tavistock in an effort to maximise shoppers' parking spaces in the town.

Improvement works costing some £250,000 in the pannier market are scheduled to start in February and, with several phases of work to be carried out, disruption is likely to last up to 12 months.

But the work on the town council-owned market is likely to mean the loss of parking spaces around the building at least temporarily, if not permanently.

Cllr Robin Pike at last week's meeting of the council's properties committee suggested fewer spaces could be lost if there was echelon, or diagonal, parking in the Brook Street end of Market Road, which was common practice in former years.

Cllr Ted Sherrell, who liked the idea, urged that 'the bullet must be bitten'.

He said: 'I agree that some traders need to park and others don't — the problem will be deciding who does.'

Cllr Judith Williams urged that more use of Bedford Square for loading and unloading should be made.

She said: 'I'm loathe to lose shoppers' spaces. If we don't have the shoppers, the traders might as well not be there.'

And Cllr Williams said the traders were 'reasonable' people who would understand the difficulties which would occur during the building work.

'I think we have to go back and say this is going to be a period when we are not able to let everybody have the spaces they would like to have,' she said.

Cllr Norma Woodcock said more information was needed about the exact parking requirements of shopkeepers around the pannier market perimeter.

'I am sure there is parking there by people who just like to be parked there but don't actually need to be. It's convenient and saves time, but on the other hand, if the difference is between saving time and saving somebody's business, we need to get priorities in the right order,' she said.

Cllr Woodcock stressed that inconvenience might be caused by the loss of some car parking spaces, but the work was being done at 'great cost' to the benefit of the market and its surrounding environment.

Town clerk Roger Howard will now write to all traders to ascertain their exact parking and loading requirements.

He will also draw up a scale-plan of Market Road to work out how many extra car parking spaces could be accommodated if vehicles were parked diagonally on the river side of the road.

'Where you get two cars parked parallel, you could get at least three echelon-parked, but it does narrow the road a bit — it means you wouldn't be able to park on the other side,' he said.

The improvements to the pannier market include new toilets and opening up the eastern end of the market hall to restore it to its original Victorian design.

The East End Stores including the hairdressers and launderette are being redeveloped, as is the old library site which will be altered to form retail units.