Nottingham's Christmas market closes for the rest of the year

A Christmas market which sparked concerns over the spread of coronavirus has closed - one day after it opened.

Nottingham's Winter Wonderland opened on Saturday despite objections from residents in the city, which is under tier three restrictions.

Organiser Mellors Group initially announced a temporary closure due to "unprecedented high footfall".

On Sunday, the city council said it had made a joint decision with the organisers not to reopen this year.

The market was set to run from 10:00 to 21:00 GMT every day until Christmas Eve.

Crowds forced it to close at 18:00 on Saturday.

Similar annual events in cities including Birmingham and Manchester were cancelled this year due to the pandemic.

Jo Cox-Brown, from Night Time Economy Solutions, said she had been in the city centre to support Small Business Saturday and witnessed crowds where people were close together and not wearing masks.

She said she worried the market could cause a spike in local coronavirus cases.

"It wasn't being well-managed it wasn't being very well-controlled," she said.

"People were defecating in doorways because there's no toilets open."

Ms Cox-Brown said many people who had been in touch were "really angry" the event went ahead and felt organisers were "putting their Christmas at risk".

Trader Simon Bonsai said he was "hugely disappointed" by the closure after a brisk day of trading on Saturday, but said the decision was "obvious".

"It was so busy last night, there were too many people about," he said.

In a joint statement, Mellors Group and the city council said it implemented a "wide range of measures" to ensure compliance with tier three restrictions.

"However, numbers were too large to implement these effectively," they said.

"We're sorry it has not worked out."

Mellors previously said there had been "pent-up demand" for city-centre shopping after the second nationwide lockdown, which ended on Wednesday.

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