Market traders have been left bemused after Islington Council ripped down their publicity posters in a bid to clean up the streets – while handing them money to print off evenmore of them.

Street cleaners have taken down posters advertising the fledgling Tufnell Park Tavern Food Market – to the frustration of its traders.

Yet the council has also awarded the market �100 to spend on publicity – money the organisers had planned to spend on posters.

Terry Patterson of Transition Tufnell Park, one of the market’s backers, said: “We raised about �120 ourselves and we used that money to make posters.

“We put up about 60 on railings, community boards, outside the Tube station and on lampposts.

“Each weekend we would go out and put up another 10.

“Each time we did it, we saw council men with their carts taking them down. It was soul-destroying.

“But the council has given us �100 to spend on publicity.

“We don’t know whether it’s worth buying more posters.

“It doesn’t make sense that different parts of the council work against each other. There is no joined-up thinking.”

The market, which is based outside the Tufnell Park Tavern in Tufnell Park Road, Tufnell Park, was set up in July and has around 10 stalls selling artisan foodstuffs.

Organisers fear that without advertising, the market will not attract enough custom – and believe the most effective way to advertise is through posters.

Ms Patterson said: “The council says we can put the market in their diaries, which I have done, but who reads those?”

Caroline Allen, an Islington Green Party campaigner, said: “In Hackney they have banners on lampposts to advertise their food markets.”

Islington Council says the market should advertise their existence in other ways.

Cllr Paul Convery, an executive council member, said: “We’re committed to supporting all Islington’s markets. That’s why we waived the administration fee and negotiated low rates for weekly trading at Tufnell Park Food Market.

“However, the council also has an obligation to keep Islington looking clean and tidy. If we allowed every market, community group and business to put up posters on the public highway, our streets would soon start to look untidy.

“We’ve offered to help raise awareness of the Tufnell Park Food Market in other ways, such as promoting it via the council’s website street trading pages, the online events diary and in the local area housing office.”