Fears that a popular market has closed permanently have proved false.

Scores of people were left wondering what had become of the Sunday morning market at Brighton station after it failed to take place in the car park at the weekend.

A sign put up in the car park said it would not go ahead but no reason was given.

Bray Associates, which runs the event, yesterday put paid to the rumours the market was finished for good.

It had been asked to cancel the market by rail operator bSouthern at the last minute, with no chance to inform everyone.

The Argus was inundated with calls and emails from bargain hunters who had arrived at the market to find it was not taking place.

Tony Lourie, 52, of Lewes Road, Brighton, has been going to the market for more than 30 years and remembers his parents taking him as a child.

He said: "There were lots of people going up there and wondering where it had gone.

"We know people who come down from London to go to the market. It has been a regular feature for all these years. There are a lot of people who earn their money there."

He said there had been rumours all month that the market was closing and that the car park had been bought by someone else.

He said: "People said they had not been given any notice and it was pretty bad for everyone.

"It's good for families and free to walk around. You can find bargains and it's the highlight of the day for a lot of people. It's amazing what you can pick up there."

Brian Noonan, representing Bray Associates, said the company had received a call last week asking it to cancel the market because of engineering works taking place at the station but they had not had time to warn everybody.

He said: "Unfortunately, we could not hold the boot sale because engineering work takes precedence over everything.

"It was cancelled just for that week. Hopefully, it will be back to normal this week and we apologise to those who turned up at 3am to set up."

A spokeswoman for Southern said: "We approached them midweek and asked them to cancel it because we needed to avoid traffic congestion."