PLANS for Christmas trade in York are being made earlier than ever in a bid to create a city-wide late night shopping experience for 2016.

Retailers in the city are being invited to open their doors later in the evening in the run up to Christmas as organisers of the St Nicholas Festival reveal this year's market will feature extending opening hours.

Speaking at at the latest meeting of York Retail Forum, Chris Price, city centre and markets manager for Make it York, outline plans for Christmas 2016, including the return of city's Christmas Market.

Part of the St Nicholas Festival, the market will once again run throughout over November and December, after being extended to a 35 day event last year.

However not only will 2016's event run for an extra two days, from November 17 to December 23, it will remain open later into the evenings on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Mr Price revealed stallholders will this year be contracted to open until 6pm between Sunday and Wednesday, while for the remaining three days of the week they will stay open until 8pm.

He said: "Christmas 2015 was a success in York. The Christmas market was generally seen as a success and we had a lot of good feedback from visitors.

"One of the things that didn't work quite so well was trying to extend the hours into the evening, which made it only a partial success for us.

"What we are trying to achieve this year is getting people to stay in the city a little bit longer.

"Staying open later also enables residents who work in the city get involved in and enjoy their own Christmas market. Before by the time they finished work and made their way into the city centre the market was packing up.

"The Christmas market brings a lot of visitors to the city. We are looking very much this year at creating a trail away from just Parliament Street and engaging them with the rest of the city.

"We now plead with retailers to support late night shopping on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This is the earliest we have ever known what's happening and given times and dates for Christmas. My plea is let's get a swell of support for late night trading.

"It's very early in the year to be talking about Christmas but we know traders need notice to cost for and staff late openings and we want to work with them and the council to make it work."

Last year York welcomed a record number of coach tours for the St Nicholas Festival with more than 400 coachloads of visitors over December, and more than two million people visiting the market.

Additional spend in York over Christmas is estimated be £50 million. The figure is based on York attracting seven million visitors a year, spending £573 million, and with nine per cent spent over the Christmas period, the figures comes in at around £52 million.

However The Press reported earlier this month that angry traders say they will boycott York’s Christmas fair after seeing costs for prime pitches increase by more than 40 per cent.

Stallholders say Make It York has hiked prices by more than £1,500 for stalls rented throughout the event.

In 2015, businesses paid £5,544 (£158.40 a day) for large stalls in Parliament Street, while this year the pitches will cost £7,026 (£189.90). On top of this, Make It York has introduced VAT for the first time, leaving stallholders facing an increase of 44 per cent per day and a total bill of £8,431.56.

Make It York said this year’s fair is two days longer than in 2015, while VAT-registered businesses could claim back that cost. The company has also brought in differential pricing, meaning less prominent pitches have gone down in price.

Make It York insisted this made for “a fairer pricing structure” and that “stallholders requested a higher fee for premium sites”.