PARTINGTON'S market is to be moved to a temporary site while improvement works go ahead in the town.

Planning chiefs agreed to shift the market to land at Smithy Lane for three years.

Under regeneration plans for the area, a one-stop health centre will be built on the existing market site. A new indoor market hall will be provided as part of plans for the phased redevelopment of the town's shopping centre.

But there was opposition to the proposal to shift the market to Smithy Lane.

The Community Association Partington and the Positive Partington group objected to the move. They complained the temporary structures would be an eyesore and would spoil what is probably the only attractive landscaped area in the town. There were also worries about crowds straying onto the carriageway or children running onto the main road; and that the site would become a meeting place for teenagers in the evening, causing noise and disturbance.

A planning report, though, said alternative locations near the town centre all had potential problems. The Smithy Lane proposal was for a short time scale, and would allow the market to continue while redevelopment work goes ahead.