A MONTHLY farmers’ market has been cancelled amid fears of the size of crowd it could attract.

Haddington Farmers’ Market traditionally takes place on the last Saturday of the month on the town’s Court Street.

However, organisers have agreed to pull the plug for this weekend’s market.

Val Shields, chairwoman of the market, said "hours and hours of work” had been put in to try to stage the market but it had been “beaten by the pandemic”.

She said: “Although permitted to operate within current Scottish Government guidelines, following discussions with East Lothian Council, we have agreed to cancel.

“With virtually everything closed at the moment, there is a worry that we may attract more people to the market than we could safely manage.

“While we feel confident that we can run a Covid compliant market within the market area, we are less able to control distancing and the behaviour of people outside the market area.

“We decided the risk is too great and we have no other option but to cancel.

“With increasing numbers of cases of the more virulent new variant of Covid occurring locally and the burden this puts on local services like the NHS and the police, we do not want to encourage a large gathering in Haddington on Saturday morning.”

Organisers will continue to follow guidelines and hope to see the market return “as soon as it is safe to do so”.