Ice rink in Chorley returns as town's Christmas plans include a Totally Locally Christmas Market in November and Santa's grotto

Visitors to Chorley will be able to enjoy lots of traditional festive fun as there will also be the chance to visit Father Christmas in the town hall throughout weekends in December.

It is all part of Chorley Council’s plans to encourage people to keep supporting local traders as we recover from the pandemic.

Councillor Peter Wilson, Deputy Leader of Chorley Council, said: “We know how important Christmas is for our traders and while we were able to run limited festive activities last year we wanted to pull out all the stops and bring back our most popular attraction this year.

“It’s not just about encouraging people to shop in Chorley and our town and village centres but we wanted to give people fun activities to do so people can come out and enjoy quality time with family and friends.

“When we’ve run Christmas attractions in previous years the ice rink has always been the most popular and it will be accompanied by the festive tipis and fairground rides meaning there is something for people of all ages.”

As well as the real ice rink, Father Christmas will spend weekends throughout December in the town hall.

The Christmas lights switch on will combine with the independent traders’ Christmas Market on Sunday November 21.

The celebrity who will switch on the lights will be announced in the next couple of weeks with organisers promising a local connection.

“There’s something for everyone this year and we’re keeping the Santa’s Grotto in the town hall for a second year as we are continuing the renovation works in Astley Hall,” said Councillor Wilson.

“It proved really popular despite us having to keep everyone socially distanced last year and while we won’t have the land train running to Astley Hall the town hall provides a traditional setting in one of our historic buildings.

“Now we’ve created temporary parking spaces across from the town hall it means we’ll be able to locate the ice rink on the event space adjacent to it so we’ll be providing more parking spaces too.

“I hope as many people as possible will support our local businesses this Christmas and while internet shopping has become more popular our town centre offers an enjoyable shopping experience and some great pubs and restaurants to enjoy the festivities in.”

The tickets for the Santa’s Grotto will go on sale later this month.

Details of all the attractions are at checkoutchorley.com/Christmas.