VISITORS in an historic York street will feel extra festive while Christmas shopping this year.

The Shambles Area Traders’ Association set up a fundraising appeal to ensure the cobbled street is covered in ‘snow’ during late night shopping in the coming weeks.

On Wednesday, they reached their target of £2,899, and are in the process of ordering up to a dozen snow machines, which will be secured in windows overlooking Shambles on Thursday nights “creating the atmosphere of a wintery snowy street”.

Phil Pinder runs Cuffs & Co and is chair of the association, and said the width of Shambles should make it simple to create a unique scene.

He said: “As a street of independents we’ve never really done late-night shopping, so the idea was to appeal to locals and tourists alike to visit Shambles and give us a reason to open late.

“The appeal ran for about four weeks, we’re really happy with how quickly it came together. Wednesday was the deadline, and we got it at 9am.”

From Thursday, visitors to York will be able to park for free at the Piccadilly car park between 3pm and 9pm every Thursday and Friday until December 22, and and extended Park&Ride service will also be in operation to encourage visitors to the city to take advantage of late night opening.

Phil said the traders had already carried out a risk assessment and looked into insurance cover for the snow, and he hoped the machines could be available by the weekend and installed for next week’s late night trading on Thursday.

He said: “We have thought of that, and we’re covered. Amazingly, every comment I’ve seen has been positive.

“Free parking and the snow is really going to help traders in the run up to Christmas. Everyone’s feeling fairly festive about everything that’s happening, so we’re hoping it will be the best Christmas ever for Shambles.”

Once installed, the machines will be in use between 4pm and 8pm every Thursday until Christmas.