IF THERE was one thing guaranteed to bring a busy, animated crowd to Parliament Street, it was the monthly farmer’s market.

The quality and range of food on offer - from Yorkshire cheeses to genuine German bratwurst - was second to none. It made for a real experience, not to mention a chance to sample foods and flavours you’d never tried before.

Sadly, not any more. The farmers market stallholders were moved out of Parliament Street to Shambles market; the number of stalls dwindled from a high of 40 to as few as 14; and now Make It York has announced the market is to be scrapped, for now at least. At some point, Make It York hopes to relocate the farmers market to St Sampson’s Square. But that can’t happen until a new organiser can be found, it says. Meantime, the market scheduled for September 29 will not go ahead. It is impossible to say, at the moment, when the next one will be.

This seems like a classic case of trying to fix something that wasn’t broken - and breaking it in the process.

The market was a massive success in Parliament Street, and a real draw, attracting visitors from far and wide. The move to Shambles seems effectively to have killed it.

We hope that a suitable operator can be found, and that a farmers market in St Sampson’s Square can one day become a success again. That, however, will depend on being able to attract the stallholders. How many of them will want to return is anybody’s guess.