COLCHESTER Castle Park will host a fresh winter wonderland event this Christmas, according to the town’s tourism boss.

Tim Young, Colchester councillor responsible for culture and tourism, confirmed an event will go ahead over the festive period and declared it could be “the best attraction in the east of England”.

The ‘winter wonderland’, which would come two years after a similar event failed when unseasonably high temperatures forced the ice rink to close, could include attractions such as ice slides, ice kingdoms and ice mountains.

Bosses are yet to rule out an ice rink also forming part of the attraction, which is being organised by an events team attached to Colchester Council.

Mr Young (Lab) said: “The events team are working hard to make Christmas pretty special in Colchester this year.

“The plans aren’t finalised yet but from what I have seen, it is looking pretty special and its is pretty large-scale.”

He added: “I think people can expect it to be as big as the previous event should have been.

“I am not allowed to give too much away but it will be ice-themed with an ice rink or something closely related.

“We are pretty confident this will be a pretty big success - we are planning for Christmas to be a huge success in Colchester.

“We know we are in competition with other areas such as Ipswich, Chelmsford and the like but we want Colchester to be right up there as the best Christmas experience in the county but also in the east of England.”

Colchester’s first Winter Wonderland - run by Reflective Ice Ltd, a company headed up by businessman Ben Payne - opened in November 2015.

But within its first 25 days of trading, the marquee ice rink attraction was closed for six full days and five half days because mild temperatures caused the ice to melt.

In total, more than £50,000 had to be refunded to people who had pre-booked skating sessions.

Colchester Council had looked at holding an event last Christmas but bosses said there would not be enough time to organise it in order to make it successful.

Mr Payne has indicated support for the council plans and has even submitted a document to the authority detailing what improvements he would have made to his own event had it been held for a second year.

He added: “The appetite is definitely there and there is no question if we had not had the winter we had, or even a moderate winter, we would have been selling tickets for it from March or April.”