DUDLEY Market Traders Association have thanked the town councillors for their help and support in helping improve working conditions for its members.

The traders had expressed concerns over some of the market’s rules and regulations, which were putting off potential new traders from selling in the town.

Under the old rules, traders could not even take a kettle on to the market to make a warm drink and some felt they had to go to work even if they felt unwell, because they feared having to pay for an unoccupied stall.

St James’s Labour ward councillors, Khurshid Ahmed and Mary Roberts, alongside Khurshid’s son, Asif, who is the party’s prospective council candidate for the ward, have spent the last few weeks been working alongside the traders and the council to make the regulations more accommodating.

Len Lenihan, Chairman of the newly formed Dudley Market Traders Association, said: “The councillors and Asif have worked actively on our behalf, through negotiations with the authority to improve working conditions for Dudley Market traders.

“Asif ’s aptitude and advice have also proved a valuable resource for market traders in helping to set up our association and furthering our aims of improving trading conditions for all traders in Dudley, which we believe are essential in order to create a vibrant and fully occupied open market place.”