Northampton's cattle market is to move to Market Harborough despite an 18-month campaign to keep it at its original site.

Operators say the market at Brackmills has been losing thousands of pounds a month since reopening in February 2002 after the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

Local farmers mounted a campaign to raise the �2m needed to buy the market and run it themselves.

But on Wednesday, managing director of Northamptonshire Auctions plc Keith Rose said: "It's just that this market cannot operate with these overheads - we've got to close."

Farmers' consortium

The livestock market will now shut on 31 October, and reopen the next day in Market Harborough.

Operators say it will mean lower overheads and greater sustainability.

The pens, weighbridges and other equipment at Brackmills will be sold by tender on 4 November.

The antiques, fine art and other auctions will continue to be held in Northampton.

But the Northampton Farmers' Consortium said its plans to buy the site had been blocked.

Northampton 'viable'

"I can't understand why they want to move all the way to Market Harborough - 28 miles away from Northampton," said Richard Sawbridge.

"If it's viable in Market Harborough it ought to be viable in Northampton."

The market was closed for a year during the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The directors said new regulations governing the movement of livestock had contributed to the market's problems.