CHRISTMAS late night shopping in Tavistock may not have been 100% successful — but has created a platform for bigger and better things in 2013.

Tavistock Business Improvement District (BID), which organised the three extended shopping nights on the Fridays running up to Christmas, is now looking for responses from traders — and ideas are already being worked up for the next festive shopping bonanza.

Adam Fleet, BID manager, said: 'We are already getting feedback and while some things might have not been quite as successful as we would have liked, some traders on the high street were very busy — some examples being Purple Penguins, Pebbles and Dartmoor Photographic.

'We are looking at doing something next year, not just Dickensian, and we will be discussing ideas at the next BID forum.'

Adam said several proposals were already being discussed, including a children's lantern procession on one of the shopping nights, and perhaps the idea of a Santa run through the town, in conjunction with the town's athletics club.

'We need the backing of retailers to be successful. There was some disappointment from some people when they found shops shut during those evenings, but at the end of the day we are a team and we all need to work together on this.'

Adam said the regular BID forums would provide an opportunity for traders to put their ideas forward — the next one would be held on March 7.

The subject of late night shopping came up at last week's meeting of the town council's properties committee.

Cllr Lynne Rose said: 'I had quite a lot of feedback from shop owners, and apart from Dickensian Evening, they didn't feel it was worth opening for more than an hour.'

Cllr Ted Sherrell said: 'I noticed it was very dead on the Friday evenings — it looked as though the golden gallopers had run out of steam!'

But Cllr Sherrell said it was certainly worth trying something new — and Cllr Julia Whitcomb said the pannier market had looked 'very well turned out' for Dickensian Evening.