That was the view this week of former councillor for South Oxfordshire District Council and Thame Town Council Mike Le Mesurier, who says the consultation only confirmed what the general public already knew - that people supported farmers' views to move to the showground.

In January SODC rejected plans for the market to move there saying other sites needed to be explored and in a final attempt to move the market to a more spacious site, an appeal was launched by the applicant R G Williams Ltd.

A consultation process, which SODC confirms cost £15,000, started to let the public choose where it should be.

Mr Le Mesurier claims it cost as much as £88,000 and says it was a 'completely wasted enterprise'.

He said: "The district council put out what they called a questionnaire where people could choose where they would like the cattle market to go. It had 14 sites where we were supposed to choose.

"People were asked to put red spots on the map where they would like it to be. Most people put it next to the showground. There was no doubt where people wanted it. The appeals inspectorate judged that the cattle market should go where the farmers and public wanted it to go.

"This is £88,000 that needn't have been spent. I am very angry about it. The tax payer has to come up with this money which should not have been spent. Those poor old farmers have had to cough up money for the appeal for lawyers as well. It was a completely wasted enterprise."

A spokeswoman for SODC said: "Whilst we are obviously disappointed with the outcome of the appeal, the inspector did agree that the proposal would cause some harm to the landscape and was contrary to planning policy, so our reasons for refusing planning permission in the first place were sound.

"We had hoped the inspector would agree that the alternative sites we had identified and which had public support, would be better options. However in his opinion the area proposed for the relocation was in an area of low sensitivity and he therefore concluded that the overall benefits of the scheme outweighed the harm identified."