A VERY popular town market looks set to continue growing as an application has been made to expand it across a High Street taxi rank at the weekend.

A proposal has been made by Rayleigh Town Council to expand the weekend market to stretch from 39 to 91 High Street.

The proposed extension will see the market stretch from outside the mini roundabout beside Pizza Express, all the way to outside the Halifax bank.

The expansion will allow the market to use the taxi rank for stalls during the day for the ten weekend markets they are allowed to hold a year.

There has not been any confirmation of how many more stalls would be created by the extension.

Cheryl Roe, chairman of Rayleigh Town Council’s environment committee hopes plans to expand will attract a wider range of stalls to come to the town.

She said: “Rayleigh Town Council has managed the market for the last seven years since we successfully relocated it to the High Street. We have recently submitted planning applications to expand the market further along the high street and to use the taxi rank for the ten weekend markets that we are allowed to put on each year.”

Currently, the council only have permission to use the taxi rank during their Wednesday markets.

Mrs Roe hopes that by gaining permission to expand it over the weekends, more traders will be encouraged to take up a spot at the longstanding market.

She said: “Our current planning approval allows us to use the taxi rank for Wednesday markets only.

“We hope that the inclusion of this area for weekend markets will attract more market operators to come to the town, including French and farmers’ markets who have expressed a preference for their stalls to be located together in one part of the high street, rather than being spread out.

“We would of course make provision for taxis to park in other areas of the high street, as we do on Wednesdays, to allow pick up and drop off points.

“The markets continue to be very popular with residents and sells a wide variety of products.”