Shopkeepers are eyeing the end of "nightmare" traffic jams blighting business when a major market closes this summer.

Trading at Bovingdon Market will cease on August 29 to enable ITV film studios to be built on its airfield base.

Ali Bakir, owner of K's Cafe, is among village shopkeepers who believe the move will encourage more customers to High Street and boost trade.

He said: “I heard the film studios are taking over. I see a lot of workers from there and they come and spend money in the local shops and help the community.”

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Carl Pearce, co-owner of reptile shop C&T Exotics, has worked in High Street for 12 years and said market-related traffic hits his business.

He said: “You continually have people pulling up outside the shop dumping their cars, half on the road, half on the path, just going to the cash point.

“We are only a small village and it’s an absolute nightmare.

“We have lost trade on Saturdays. Some customers do say, ‘I tried coming to you guys yesterday and it was an absolute nightmare, so we ended up going home or to another shop’.”

Carole Bartlett, sales assistant at Bovingdon News, has lived in the village since childhood and remembers the market opening.

She said: “I have lived here all my life, that’s 63 years, and from the very first market we couldn’t get in or out.

“It gets gridlocked.”

Bovingdon Market, run by Wendy Fair Markets, first opened in 1978. It is home to 400 stalls that sell products including fashion, food, toiletries and computer accessories.

Its operation director Nick Hobday, disputed the claims about weekend traffic, and said planners will have to take congestion into account at any new site.

He told the Watford Observer: “It is a shame that after 44 years it is closing.

“We are investigating a new location and we hope to secure something for at least another five years.”