MARKET traders are back home in Angel Place early and in time to reap the benefits of the Victorian Christmas Fayre.

Traders are back in Worcester's new-look market area although they have yet to receive their new-look burgundy weather-proof stalls which they will trade from during the official launch this Wednesday (December 3). However, traders say business is already on the up and they feel glad to be back and to be able to capitalise on the increased footfall from the fayre. The £555,000 revamp involved resurfacing the market area and removing the old framework of the market to allow for the new modern, moveable stalls. The traders now have an early Christmas present as they were told they can trade throughout the fayre today, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.

Traders had been spread out across Worcester after the work on Angel Place began on Tuesday, September 9, leading many of them to claim they had lost business as a result of the upheaval. Others were unhappy that their trading days has been cut from six in some cases down to three.

Duncan Squires of Angel Flowers, who has run the stall for the last 20 years, said: "We were due back next week but to be back for the Christmas Fayre is a bonus. I would be over the moon if they had not decided to reduce the market to three days a week. It's good to be back in Angel Place. I just wish we were back six days a week.

"I kept a lot of my customers when I moved onto the High Street. Whether I keep some of the customers I made on the High Street now I'm back here, I don't know."

Shelley Cusack from the rug stall said: "We're home. It's already a hundred times better, straight away. It's Victorian Fayre week so it's going to be busier anyway. We won't really know until we get settled. We are opening fully on Wednesday next week. That is our first official day on the market. It feels really good to be back. There is no negative for me at the moment.

"It is definitely an improvement. It's tidier but it is trade that is the most important thing, not what we stand on."

Pat Perry of bags and luggage said: "I'm glad to be back. They have set us up for the Victorian Christmas Fayre. That has helped. I'm well pleased. We have looked at the new stalls and they are really good. We have already noticed the increase in trade. It's back how it was before. It is the right area for it. Before (during the temporary arrangements) we were split up which didn't help."

Worcester City Council brought in LSD Promotions – who already run successful markets in Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Wolverhampton and Kidderminster – to offer a fresh new approach to markets in the city.

Dermot McGillicuddy of LSD Promotions Ltd said: "We are happy when we were asked to help by supplying them with stalls allowing them to get to work. The stalls supplied are not the new-look stalls. We have been delighted that the existing traders have had the opportunity to take advantage of the benefit of the footfall created during the Christmas Fayre."