York residents will be able to access discounts of up to 30 per cent on Christmas Market stalls this year, a tourism chief has revealed.

Making the city centre and its activities more appealing for locals, some of whom say they feel excluded by the emphasis on tourism, has been a key objective for Sarah Loftus, managing director of Make it York (MIY).

Her team has negotiated discounts at every stall, which will range from five to 30 per cent.

“That hopefully will encourage residents to participate,” she said.

MIY is a destination management organisation wholly owned by City of York Council.

Shareholder committee chair Councillor Paula Widdowson said: “It’s fabulous to see how much front and centre you’ve put the residents.

“We need to be singing that from the hilltops to make sure all the residents, who have six weeks of that market, know it – cracking job.”

York’s Christmas Market runs from November 17 to December 23.

Ms Loftus also said the market would be single-use plastic free for the first time, which was again praised by Cllr Widdowson.

She added: “For the first time we’ve built in sustainability into all of our contracts. We will be policing it and we have the green generators.

“We’re also going to be selling some recycled cups at the visitor information centre so that people can reuse them when they go get their mulled wine in the Christmas Market.”

Ms Loftus also said work had started on trying to reduce cross-over between the daily Shambles Market and the Christmas Market.

“We need to perhaps next year look more closely at the commodities that are up for sale at the Christmas Market in comparison to the Shambles Market,” she added.

“We will do that in partnership with the Shambles traders because people want a mix – they don’t want to come somewhere where everything is the same. And also we want to encourage people to move from the Christmas market into the Shambles Market.”

Elsewhere, MIY has announced that the visitor centre will move from Museum Street to 21 Parliament Street, with MIY staff occupying the accompanying office space.