A MARKET selling fresh fruit and vegetables, home made cakes and crafts in the city for more than 60 years is closing down next month.

Hereford Country Market is held every Friday morning from 7am in St Peter’s Hall in St Peter’s Square – but will serve its last customers on October 24.

The failure in finding someone to take responsibility for organising and running the weekly market is being blamed.

Cecily Palmer, markets adviser for Country Markets in Herefordshire, said no-one wanted to be secretary or assistant treasurer in Hereford and the market could not survive.

Any money in its account would be held for three years in the hope that it might re-open in Hereford in the near future.

Mrs Palmer said similar markets in Ledbury, Bromyard, Leominster, Kington and Ross-on-Wye were doing well and that it was sad to see Hereford close down.

But she said she appreciated that Hereford had problems in St Peter’s Square, including difficulty in delivering produce for the market, the cost of parking and losing bus stops outside the hall.

A former organiser of the Hereford market, Elizabeth Plant, said members were getting older and there were fewer people interested in home cooking to sell their produce.

They had to be registered to cook at home, label, wrap and postcode everything, fewer people were producing eggs because of rules over stamping and there was more competition in Hereford with regular farmers and French markets in High Town.

The WI was responsible for starting the markets but had to give up when they were told that, as a charity, members could not have stalls and make money for themselves.

The markets became independent and turned into a national co-operative called Country Markets Ltd.