July 4, 2018 3.05 pm This story is over 68 months old

How much the Lincoln Christmas Market lost last year

Find out how much the partly snowed-off market cost the City of Lincoln Council
Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

The 2017 Lincoln Christmas Market made a £53,750 loss in its financial report, just a year after making its first profit in half a decade.

City of Lincoln councillors will review the full account of the market’s financial outturn at a Performance Scrutiny meeting on Thursday, July 12.

The event was marred by a Sunday closure last year after a bad weather forecast forced the council to make the decision to cancel the event for the day.

However, despite concerns over snow, there was no severe weather on the day.

The city council made a profit on the event in 2016 of £10,282.

Despite this, the authority budgeted for a loss of £8,660 in 2017.

This means that the authority lost £45,090 more on the market than it had initially budgeted for.

The city council estimated that more than 200,000 visited the 2017 Christmas Market over the three days that it was open.

They also estimated that the total visitor spend was in the region of £14 million with an economic value to the city of £2.65 million.

The council has decided to freeze prices on stalls for returning traders for the 2018 event.

Simon Walters, Assistant Director Health and Environment Services said: “Last year’s Lincoln Christmas Market was unprecedented in that we had to spend an additional amount on continuing to ensure our  visitors had an enjoyable and  safe experience.

“In light of incidents that had happened at large-scale events throughout Europe over the previous year, we took the decision to increase the security arrangements.

“The safety of our visitors is of utmost importance to us, and if we have to increase our security at the Lincoln Christmas Market to ensure that everyone has a safe and enjoyable event, then we do so without hesitation.

“This extra cost, which has been seen in an increase in overall policing and vehicle security barriers has therefore translated into an operational loss for the council.

“The Lincoln Christmas Market is a much-loved event, and the losses incurred in 2017 will not have an effect on the event in the coming years. Indeed we are already well advanced in planning for an even bigger and better market in 2018.”