MALMESBURY Chamber of Commerce has slammed a survey that showed most people would like to see the return of a Sunday market in the town.

Chairman Alan Woodward said the 215 responses to the town-wide survey were not enough to draw conclusions.

"I am not very happy with the survey," he said.

"Only a couple of hundred questionnaires came back out of 2,000.

"I do not think it is highly representative of what the people of Malmesbury want.

"In my opinion, I do not think 100 people saying they want a market is particularly a thumbs up for the market."

After a 30-year wait, a Sunday market was resurrected at the Market Cross in September last year and proved popular with shoppers.

But it was stopped after just three months amid recrimination from traders at the extra competition it created, from the churches about parking problems it caused during their services and claims of unpaid rent to the town council from operator Landmark Markets.

Angry shoppers, feeling that their views were not being heeded, started a petition for the return of the market.

The issue deeply divided the town council, which ordered an investigation by the Malmesbury Town Council Review Group.

The review group included questions about a market in a wider survey about the running of the town council last month.

An interim report on the results of the survey presented to the council last week showed most people questioned in the survey wanted the Sunday market back.

But Mr Woodward said that traders would like to see the market on a day other than Sunday.

"If we have got to have a market, Malmesbury Chamber of Commerce would like it so it is of benefit to the traders and townsfolk of Malmesbury. That is not on Sunday morning," he said.

"We would like it on either on Thursday or Saturday morning."

Of the 215 people who responded to the survey, 162 people said they wanted the return of the market. Only 29 respondents said they did not want the market back again.

Asked what day of the week the market should be held, 74 per cent said they would like to see it on a weekend.

Of this number, 51 per cent wanted the market on a Sunday and 31 per cent wanted a Saturday market.

Most people would like the market either in the morning or all day.

The Mayor of Malmesbury, Patrick Goldstone, said the town council would learn from last year's mistakes.

He said: "We are progressing. We are liaising very closely with the Chamber of Commerce because we do not want the problems we had last year.

"We are having some meetings with market managers from other towns. It has progressed and hopefully we are going to have some positive news very soon."

"To get a ten per cent response is really quite good and quite a high majority of respondents want a market at the weekend.

"That does not surprise me, there is a high population of families in which both adults work. They do not have opportunity to go to a local market from Monday to Friday."

The chairman of the review group, Coun Judy Jones, said in her conclusions: "Many people appeared to be aware that a revived market will only succeed if car parking and traffic congestion problems are effectively addressed."