15114/09GAZETTE & HERALD: GENERATIONS of farmers have used the livestock market in Chippenham. But in two weeks time the historic livestock market is to close to make way for the new Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office.

And farmers and their stock face a 25-mile journey on the M4 to the nearest cattle market.

Ted Greenaway, 78, who travels from Cirencester, said: "It's a disaster for the people and farmers around Chippenham.

"I've come here every week since I was a young lad so it will be sad when it closes down.

"They tell us not to travel these cattle about then they add 25 miles down the motorway.

"The further the cattle travel the worse it is for them."

Mr Greenaway added: "The council has got no sympathy with farming these days."

The fate of the livestock market has been in the balance for more than two years since North Wiltshire District Council, which owns the site, decided to re-think its future.

Planning permission for the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office was granted at the beginning of the month and the county council wants to begin work on the site in March.

Market operators Premier Livestock Auctions will move the market to a site at Cribbs Causeway, near Bristol after hopes of finding a new location in north Wiltshire came to nothing.

Retired farmer, Tony Dash, 67, has travelled from Wootton Bassett to Chippenham for the auction almost every week for 60 years.

He said he will travel to the new market in Bristol, but only because he has to.

"It will be more than double the expense because it's all the way down the motorway," he said.

Mr Dash, whose father and grandfather used Chippenham's cattle market added: "They shouldn't close it."

Sixty-five year old Bill Matthews' father and grandfather also bartered at the site.

Mr Matthews, from Brinkworth is retired but still owns a few cattle and visits the market once a week.

"It's not me I'm worried about; it's the future generations," he said.

He will not travel to the Bristol market because it is too far.

"I won't be going to cattle markets in the foreseeable future unless they build another one nearby."

Market director, Peter Kingwill doesn't think the move will have a huge impact on the farming industry and thinks there are ways around travelling the extra miles.

"Our big issue is persuading people to come down the motorway," he said.

"A lot of people will choose not to travel with a trailer, but there are one or two routes that are not motorway routes or they can use hauliers.

"We will be assisting people in sending their stock down with a haulier then they will begin to make contacts with them.

"It's just changing that pattern of marketing. I did recognise it would be difficult for the locals. They have to get used to the new era.

"It won't be easy for everybody but we want people to talk to us and the hauliers and find a way. We'll be there to help them."

Toby Sturgis, a member of the working group, said how angry he is about the closure of Chippenham's cattle market.

"It's going to be very damaging to the countryside," he said. "People aren't going to have livestock if they've got nowhere to sell it. Once again the Liberal Democrats have ignored the countryside."

He added: "Having had the working group which proves there was a need for the cattle market, the fact the district council did nothing and denied members the chance of even debating it. I'm very angry."