ARCHAEOLOGISTS are probing a Chester site where council bosses would like to relocate the city’s market hall.

Trial trenches have been dug in Frodsham Street car park which is the preferred location for a new £8m market hall under proposals by the Tory-controlled Cheshire West and Chester Council.

The plan is still in its infancy but results from the excavation will be fed into the decision-making process.

Archaeologists have previously suggested the area occupied by Frodsham Street had been a large Roman parade ground.

Council spokeswoman Rachel Ashley said: “It’s been going on for a couple of weeks, it’s just a couple of trial pits, not a huge excavation.

“It’s part of the standard preliminary investigation from a conservation and design perspective as with any development site in Chester. There have been no finds yet.”

Mrs Ashley said it had never been stated the market hall would be built on the Frodsham Street car park but the results of the trial trenches would be “part of the information taken on board when the decision is taken”.

Campaign group Friends of Chester Market opposes council plans to relocate the market from its location in The Forum because of changes brought about by the ING-backed Northgate Development.

A 1,600-strong petition has been handed into the council to keep the market in a central location by the town hall automatically triggering a council debate, after passing a 1,500 threshold, which expected to take place on July 28.

Chairman Vic Button, of Button’s Electrical, said: “The council are intent on relocating the market so they can sell the land that it is on to ING, so selling off the silver! This is so that the land can then be redeveloped with unneeded shops and apartments.”