Market traders have struck a temporary deal with the council to keep their stalls open until the end of the summer.

Two weeks after the council gave them notice to quit trading, 18 stallholders set up on the beach at the end of the West Pier in Brighton.

Brighton and Hove Council has now given them another 28 trading days - 14 weekends - before they have to go.

Mark Keeble, who runs the second-hand book stall on the market, said: "This is a short-term reprieve for us. Now we want to push for something more permanent after the summer."

The traders were told they could continue trading for now but only on the strip of beach at the end of pier which belongs to the West Pier Trust.

The council has forbidden stalls to be set up on the esplanade.

The closure of the market a fortnight ago was part of a council crackdown on illegal traders on the seafront. It said the market could take trade away from other, legitimate, seafront enterprises.

Council officers said the market, which sells items ranging from second-hand books and videos to clothing and jewellery, was unlicensed.

But traders said they had helped clean up an area which was once earmarked by the police as a trouble spot because of noise, drink and drugs.

Many said they would be burdened with stock they had invested in for the summer if they lost their pitch.

Last weekend, in protest against the closure, they set up a "ghost" market of empty stalls and about 6,000 passers-by signed a petition to get them reinstated.

Mr Keeble said the traders, who pay rent to the West Pier Trust, had received a lot of support from the public since their peaceful protest.

He said: "We have had so many people telling us that they look forward to looking round the market at the weekend.

"We have not got the petitions on show this weekend because the council has compromised but people are still asking to sign without us asking them to."

On Saturday, four new stallholders joined the market with only two regulars not turning up.

Brighton and Hove mayor Andy Durr had suggested the traders were offered space on the empty decking which forms the only restored section of the structure.

But West Pier Trust general manager Rachel Clark said traders had already been approached about it and did not want to use the decking.

She added: "They prefer to stay on the Lower Promenade because they know that is where people walk and where the trade is."

Mrs Clark added that care had been taken to ensure traders sold items which were not sold elsewhere along the seafront.