IT is a quarter-of-a-million-pound market place that has no market!

Two-and-a-half years since Kidlington’s Watts Way had a £265,000 taxpayer-funded makeover as a modern piazza, just one trader sets up his stall there on Saturday mornings.

During the village’s Friday market day, the square is completely empty.

The only trader in the square said it had just provided “somewhere for teenagers to smoke”.

Council bosses said a staffing crisis has meant setting up the market in the piazza has not been a priority and it does not know when it will sort it out.

When the redevelopment was first put forward in 2006, the district council said it would create an “improved public space and an area for the market” which would be “pleasant and welcoming to all users”.

But when completed in early 2008, access routes for deliveries to shops in the nearby Kidlington Centre precinct meant much of the square was left unusable for traders.

The council said that issue was resolved with centre owners Eames Estates last autumn, but now a staffing crisis in its licensing department has prevented the council “from making significant headway on making the market ambitions a reality”.

Councillor Nigel Morris, who has responsibility for the project, said: “As Kidlington has a perfectly workable market, making arrangements for stalls to be situated in this area has not been deemed a priority.

“This development was brought forward to rejuvenate an area which had become little more than a service yard for nearby shops.

“It has transformed this area into an attractive link between the car park and the High Street and has enabled the refurbishment of adjoining shops.

“Improvement was the primary intention and locating market stalls there was, and remains, aspirational.”

The council said it was working to create a market association, but could not say when.

The sole trader who uses the square, Stuart Crawford, 27, of Crawford Fruits, said: “When the council wanted to make the market bigger, they moved us to this square and said it was going to be full, but it’s just us here.

“I would like all the market stalls to be put together, like we used to be. The council has spent a lot of money on this square, just to provide a place for kids to stand and smoke.”

And Kim Martin, manager of the Kidlington Centre, said: “One of the reasons we gave up half our land was so the market could move into the piazza.

“We are very disappointed that it has not moved, especially when we were told it would happen in April.”

Kidlington Centre trader David Cox, of Freelance Fabrics, said: “When they built the square, the market got all excited about an avenue of stalls leading to the High Street, but the project seems to keep stalling.

“It is quite sad really, because there has been a decline in markets.”

Kidlington parish councillor Chris Robins said: “We have ended up with only the original traders in the square on the little bit of land we always had.

“It is rather unsatisfactory. We were not very pleased when we found that the job had not been done quite as hoped.”