Disgruntled York traders today agreed to stay within the law, despite unpopular new metric regulations.

As the New Millennium dawned so did the new European law that loose goods must be sold in grammes and kilos.

But traders on Newgate Market, in York, are not joining a rebellion in which traders face fines of up to £2,000 for flouting regulations. "I'm not happy about it," said John Mannion, a trader on the market for 30 years. "But we are going to print both prices.

"The older customers aren't going to understand and will think they are being ripped off."

He has already spent £80 on new scales and will have to buy more to meet demand.

"It is going to make things more difficult for customers but we have to put up with it."

The stall Tracey Ellis was working on will also be displaying both values on its goods.

"We are ready for the change," she said.

Fabric trader Finlay Orr, who has traded at the market for 14 years, said: "Most of my customers are older ladies who are buying fabric for dressmaking. They don't work in metric and most dress patterns are still in yards.

"If customers ask for fabric in yards, I'm supposed to say 'that's so many metres', but I'm very likely just to give them what they've asked for.

"My opinion is that I'm not here to teach people the metric system. That's the Government's job."

Fruit and vegetable traders Alan and Simon Baynes have spent more than £200 to have their three sets of scales recalibrated and have been trading in both metric and imperial measures for the last few weeks.

Alan said: "I don't agree with it in the first place but we have to do it. It's the older customers I feel sorry for because they don't think in metric measures."

He said that because a "per kilo" price is greater than a "per pound" price and has to be displayed in larger print it could give customers the impression that goods are more expensive when they are not. Simon added: "There are supposed to be fines of up to £2,000 for not obeying and so we have got to do it."

For the next ten years traders will be allowed to display imperial and metric values on their goods, as long as the imperial measure is not in bigger print than the metric.

While virtually all loose goods will have to be sold in metric measures, it will still be legal to serve pints of beer and milk.

Mike Hessey, principal trading standards officer at City of York Council's food safety and standards unit, said recent routine inspections had revealed that most traders had already converted to the metric system ahead of the January 1 deadline.

Officers will be taking an advisory role in line with national guidelines.

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