Profit from Dorchester Markets is almost £40,000 down on predicted figures last year – £127,000 – compared to an expected £166,600.

The main reason for the fall came from the Wednesday market which was predicted to return £101,000 – but only produced £61,500. Other income comes from the markets at the Cornhill, Sunday car boot sales and the Dorset Farmers Market.

The overall surplus for the year is shared between the joint market operators – West Dorset District Council which will take £70,400 and Dorchester Town Council, £37,900. Some money is put aside for future spending.

Ensors, which runs the Wednesday market, say that gross revenue from tolls fell from £200,000 in 2015/16 to £172,000 in 2016/17 and has now fallen again, to £147,700.

Councillors are being told that the drop in Wednesday market income comes despite advertising on the Visit Dorset website and giving out 300,000 leaflets to promote the market.

During the same period gross income from the Sunday car boot sale remained at a constant £50,000.

The end of year figures, which will be reported to the Dorchester Markets Informal Joint Panel tomorrow, come as Dorchester Town Council makes a bid to manage the town's markets without the district council, which will cease to exist from April next year.

Town councillors claim the Royal Charter of 1630 gave the right to operate market to the town and should be handed back to the town before, or at the time of, local government reorganisation in April next year.

A recent survey about the Wednesday market, carried out both face to face and online, reached more than 2,000 people. It shows that most of those who took part in the survey and go to the market come from Dorchester, 11 per cent from Weymouth, 5 per cent from Bridport and a similar percentage within an 8-mile radius of Dorchester. The figures appear to take no account of the many coach tours which visit in the summer months.

Fresh produce and plants were the main reason most visited the market – with the biggest support for the market coming mainly from the 60+ age group.

Of those who do not go to the market more than 40 per cent said they would would visit if the range of what was on sale was improved. Many of those who do not attend work full or part time and said that the market was closed before the end of a 'normal' working day.