MARKET traders fear their livelihoods could be at stake because of new parking proposals which will force them to leave their stock unattended.

They say Wycombe District Council's proposal, asking them to park in Bellfield Road rather than Railway Place car park, will leave their stock vulnerable to opportunist thieves and adverse weather conditions while they make the half-hour round trip to collect their vans.

Traders, who pay full price for their daily parking, argue they are not responsible for parking problems in the town as they only account for 20 to 30 vans parked for two working days, plus Sundays, each week.

Jonathan Hill, co-director of the High Wycombe Market Traders Association, has written to councillors pleading with them to reconsider proposals to make market traders park in Bellfield Road car park.

The 37-year-old owner of the Party Crazy card stall, located outside Bakers Oven in the High Street, said: "There must be a better solution than this that would work for everyone. Currently it takes five to six minutes to walk from the High Street to Railway Place and it takes about the same to drive back.

"I have walked from my stall to the entrance of Bellfield Road and it takes 12 to 13 minutes and then the drive back.

"The big problem with this is that at the moment traders take a huge risk leaving their livelihoods unattended along the High Street for a good ten minutes and you are now telling us to leave them for at least double that length of time."

He added: "Stallholders do try to keep an eye out for colleagues' stalls while they are away but at the busy times of setting up and packing away this is not easy now as it is."

Mr Hill said on a recent tour of town centre car parks he saw contractors' vans taking up spaces in town centre car parks, particularly in the Desborough area.

Mr Hill added: "I am sure that the council can understand our concern and the exceptional conditions we work under. If we asked the manager of Woolworths to leave his store unattended for ten minutes twice a day I think we all know what the reaction would be."

Council spokesman Joanne Mass said: "The restriction on commercial vehicles only applies to vehicles which are large or heavy (more than 5.3m long, 2m wide or 1500kg unloaded); market traders with normal-sized vehicles will not be affected.

"We are giving the market traders with commercial vehicles special concession to use Bellfield in order to free up more spaces for the local work force and shoppers at the east side of the town, where there are fewer car park spaces."