DICKENSIAN Evening in Tavistock may be moved from its traditional slot in the first week of December to co-incide with the switching on of the Christmas lights a week earlier.

Tavistock Chamber of Commerce is considering bringing its late night shopping extravaganza forward a week, to make the event even bigger and better.

Over the last couple of years the switching on of the lights through the town, and Tavistock Lion's Club Trees of Lights on the town hall has attracted more people.

Olympic silver medallist Heather Fell switched on the lights in 2008 and last year the children of St Rumon's Infants School were involved and hundreds of spectators came along to enjoy the event.

Chamber chairman Nigel Eadie said the problem with the event was that once the lights had been switched on, people went home because the shops were not open:

'If we combined it with Dickensian evening people would stay in town. The lights switch on could take place at 5.30pm and hail the start of Dickensian,' he said.

Mr Eadie said Tavistock was fairly late in switching on its Christmas lights compared with other towns and members of the chamber were not keen on delaying it to the first week in December.

'It makes sense to bring Dickensian forward and with this additional attraction it may bring more people in,' he said.

The chamber is also considering longer opening hours on one night a week in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and a Christmas market in West Street.