COLCHESTER Council is set to resurrect the failed Winter Wonderland - but bosses say they have learned harsh lessons.

Castle Park played host to the month-long event in December last year but it was widely criticised after unseasonably warm temperatures melted the ice rink and left hundreds of people who had booked skating sessions out of pocket.

Now council bosses have confirmed they are looking into running an event in the town - most likely in Castle Park - over the course of Christmas 2017.

The council events team has been instructed to research the options and report back to the cabinet in the autumn.

Deputy council leader, Tim Young (Lab), said: “Unfortunately there won’t be anything at Christmas 2016 but we are looking to do something around [the Winter Wonderland] theme in 2017.

“We need to learn the lessons of 2015, which was a great idea in theory but in practice the weather and the providers let us down.”

Mr Young added: “We still think something like it has mileage and will be good for Colchester.

“Castle Park would be the obvious location but I certainly wouldn’t rule out other locations."

Mr Young said “harsh lessons” would be learnt before any new attraction is set up.

He added: “For starters, we will get an experienced operator who has done it before rather than someone who was doing it for the first time.

“We know the problems which it had but we also know it can be done as we’ve seen elsewhere.

“Despite the problems, I think it’s fair to say it was very popular, which shows an attraction like that would attract quite a big crowd.

“It was just a shame it couldn’t open as often because of the melting ice.

“If it had stayed open, people were saying it was great and they would have kept going.

“Hopefully we will be in a position to give Colchester residents something even better in 2017.”

Winter Wonderland 2015 was organised by businessman Ben Payne, whose company Reflective Ice Ltd went into liquidation on December 23.

It had lost money after not being able to open continuously as the ice melted in temperatures as high as 16°C.

The ice was laid by Cousins Entertainment, which worked with Dancing on Ice.

Mr Payne said: “I think, and have always thought, it is a great idea for somewhere like Colchester.

“When we opened last year, we had 17,000 tickets sold for the whole five weeks, which would probably brought 32,000 or 33,000 people.

“According to Cousins at that stage it was one of the most successful opening years they had ever seen.”

Mr Payne added he would “fully support” anyone who led the project and had submitted a document to Colchester Council detailing what improvements would have been made 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 last year, or even a moderate winter, we would have been selling tickets for it from March or April.

As well as the ice rink, the event also included fairground attractions, festive-themed stalls and food outlets.