Dorchester Wednesday market operators, Ensors, say they could bring a seven-day market, antiques sales and events centre to the town.

It believes the move could revive the county town market and bring in thousands of visitors.

The suggestion comes as local councillors consider the future of all of Dorchester's markets.

One idea they are looking at is to move many of the weekly stalls from the Fairfield site into South Street, although this would cause problems for some of the larger operators.

Brendon George, from Ensors, says that by the end of the current year the company could have what he describes as a 'one-off' opportunity to revive Dorchester Market and make it the largest and leading market in the South West.

"By the end of 2021 we could be in a position to move our large antique centre and inside stall market together with a number of our outside traders from Wimborne to Dorchester which we visualise would be a seven days a week revolving market and event centre and we would hope that this would bring with it thousands of holiday makers to the town."

In a letter to Dorchester's joint markets panel he says that the days of very profitable large stall markets have gone.

The company currently has a contract until 2026 to run both the Dorchester weekly stall market at the Fairfield and the Sunday car boot sales, both of which have seen a large fall in income this year.

Mr George says the company wants to maintain its contract but admits to a sense of frustration in dealing with the joint council panel in the past: "As you are well aware over the years of stall market decline we have constantly put forward one scheme after another of improvements which we were prepared to finance ourselves to try to modernise and improve the market but none have been accepted or encouraged."

The company is currently in the process of selling its four-plus acre site at Wimborne Market to build homes and applying to further develop the Wimborne Show Ground on the fringe of the town.

"We consider a new style of country market together with shows and events, including large antique fairs and even very large car boot sales is what the general public are interested in at the present time."

Mr George says that to further invest in Dorchester the business would need to know that it would have long term security, ideally by purchasing the freehold of the market site and being offered a long lease to run markets.