The Saturday market was moved to Winfrey Avenue for the 50th Spalding Flower Parade at the request of emergency services overseeing parade arrangements.

This was meant to be a one-off, with stallholders retaining its usual town centre position during the 2009 Spalding Flower Parade.

However, Mr Elliott said he was not happy with this and has issued an ultimatum to South Holland District Council.

He said: "I will not organise the parade to go through Market Place if the markets are there next year because it's not safe and I am not prepared to stand in a coroner's court should something go wrong."

Despite concerns raised by Coun Angela Newton at the final full council meeting before the parade, the market in Winfrey Avenue and Focus car park enjoyed an extremely busy day with visitor numbers in Spalding estimated at up to 100,000.

Coun Newton, who is a council representative on the National Association of British Market Authorities and a stallholder, had argued that the move was unfair on market traders who support the market all year round.

Deputy council leader Nick Worth said that no decisions had been taken on whether to move the market back but did say that Market Place was a lot quieter during this year's Flower Parade.

He said: "I think Chris is probably jumping the gun a bit.

"We have not had a chance to find out how it went at this stage.

"I thought it looked quite good in Winfrey Avenue and the Focus car park but it did leave a gap in the town. It looked a bit quiet in the centre.

"The plan was that this was going to be a one-off but we will need to sit down with the trust and look at what our options are and see what the feedback from market traders and shopkeepers is like."