Market traders are spending “sleepless nights” worrying about their finances after being told to cough up thousands of pounds in backdated rent.

Canterbury City Council has issued the retailers with backlogged invoices after it was revealed pitching fees had not been collected since March.

This comes as the authority prepares to go ahead with controversial plans to break up the market - which is thought to have been operating for almost 700 years - and scatter stallholders across 41 sites around the city.

Canterbury Market Traders Association chairman Steve Bamber says outstanding balances range from £1,000 to as much as £3,600.

“The invoices have given me sleepless nights,” he told KentOnline.

“I’ve been so worried about how I’m going to pay them.”

Council bosses stress the fees could not be collected for the last five months due to “a combination of staffing problems and challenges with our credit card machine”.

They also insist officials have “kept in close contact with traders and asked them to put aside the rent they owe”.

But Mr Bamber says the invoices have not only been months late, but also contain incorrect addresses and accounting errors.

Emails show his belated bills totalling £3,465 were later reduced by £200 after the authority acknowledged it had made mistake.

“Even though I have been a market trader in Canterbury for 26 years and the council is well aware of my address, my invoices are all wrongly addressed and demand inaccurate sums,” Mr Bamber added.

“I was overcharged by at least £200 and other traders are also having to query wrong amounts on their demands.

“It might have been a better idea for the council to have taken a little more care and got things right - especially after all this time.”

Traders also claim communication with the city council regarding the matter has been scarce.

Rather than be centred in one location, stallholders will be offered stalls in four different zones - stretching from St Dunstan’s and Station Road West, up to Guildhall Street and the top end of the high street - in January.

This will coincide with work beginning on the long-awaited £1.2 million renovation of the high street.

Lynn Tomsett, who has been a market trader for seven years, told a meeting last Monday stallholders “have felt ignored and belittled, with councillors referring to what we sell as ‘tat’” in recent months.

Responding to the traders’ billing concerns, local authority spokesman Leo Whitlock said: “We have kept in close contact with traders since March and asked them to put aside the rent they owe ready to receive an invoice.

“None of this is a surprise.

“If they feel they have been charged the wrong amount, they are more than welcome to contact us so we can work through any issues together.

“The same applies to any traders struggling to pay so we can come up with a plan.”

The meeting last week was called by opposition councillors wanting the cabinet’s decision to position stallholders across dozens of pitches around the city to be reviewed.

However, their bid to overturn the move was voted down.