A busy time for commercial activities

Now the summer holidays are over, we have to get down to planning the timetable for 2016.

First off though, a comment on the recent Thomas event. This was as always a great success due to the enthusiasm of so many volunteers. Visitor numbers were down on the record set last year but what with the recent appalling weather and of course the rugby world cup this was to be expected. About 40% of all tickets were sold on line in advance and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Visitor numbers up to date are well up on last year which is good news, and amazingly santa ticket sales are currently about 40% higher than on the same date last year!

On to 2016! We are now at the second proof stage in the design of next year's timetable. This is a mammoth job to get all the dates, events and times agreed by everyone but hopefully we are almost there. We've got to get it right as 350,000 printed timetables will be ready for distribution at the end of November!

This week I have been having talks with John Mayell, David Capron, Tony Shipley and Rosemary Smith about a new special event for next year. For the first time, we are introducing the "Cotswold Food and Drink Fayre" in October 2016 which looks as though it could become a regular fixture for us.

Colin Fewell