People should avoid travelling by car to York’s Christmas Market but more buses will be available, the council’s transport spokesperson has said.
City of York Council transport lead Cllr Kate Ravilious said there were plans to run more buses from park and rides into the city centre during the Christmas Market.
The council executive member said: “Please use sustainable travel means where possible as roads can get very congested at that time of year.”
Cllr Ravilious’ comments come ahead of the start of the Christmas Market on Thursday, 14 November.
It is set to run until Sunday, 22 December.
The market is due to see 75 alpine-style chalets line Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square offering Christmas-themed craft products.
A further ten vendors are set to offer food, with three selling mulled wine.
The market is one of the most popular yearly events in York.
Figures from York BID showed visits in December 2023 rose year-on-year by 36.1 per cent, though the blocking of its footfall camera in 2022 may have skewed the data.
December 2023’s footfall was 20.2 per cent higher than that recorded in 2019.
Last year was the first time that footfall in December was higher than levels recorded before the coronavirus pandemic.
December 2023 saw the single-highest amount of visitors to York city centre of any month during that year, hitting about 1.2m.
Figures since 2019 showed although there has been spikes in the run up to Christmas, 2023 was the only year when December had the highest monthly number of visitors.
December also accounted for the highest monthly spend by card transactions in 2023, with more than £30m recorded.
It was up by 13.5 per cent compared to December 2022.
York BID stated the increase may have been driven in part by inflation which pushed up the price of goods.
Transport executive member Cllr Ravilious said council officials were working with market organiser Make It York, bus and rail operators on travel arrangements for this year.