THE TEAM behind Dorchester’s Skating in the Square are celebrating another successful winter.

Around 6,000 people took to the synthetic ice rink at Brewery Square this year, an increase in numbers from last time round.

Tamzin Hyde from Skating in the Square said the activity had been very well received again and she was delighted with how many people had turned out to enjoy the experience.

She said: “It’s been fantastic, really good. Things really picked up once the holidays started and we had lovely weather so that helped.

“It was lovely and we had really positive feedback from everybody with lots of people coming more than once.

“I think people really love having it there.”

The office functions for the skating occupied a then empty restaurant unit in the first year Skating in the Square was set up in 2013 but, with the unit premises now occupied by Cote Brasserie, they were moved to a Christmas cabin overlooking the rink.

Tamzin said the new location worked really well and was enjoyable for staff running the skating as well.

She said: “It was much nicer, you did feel you got the atmosphere a lot more because you were there looking out over it.

“I think it looked much nicer and worked really well, it felt really Christmassy and festive.

“We also had a barn with crepes and hot chocolate and that was really popular.”

Tamzin said that she was hoping to run the skating again next winter, with many of the staff who were involved this time round already looking forward to coming back.

She said: “The staff loved working there and they were all very sad on the last day.

“They all went for a last skate on the last Sunday and it was quite emotional.

“We are planning to do it again next year and the staff all said they would do it again.”

The numbers were up from the previous winter, when around 5,000 people got their skates on.

The skating was enjoyed by a range of people of all ages and groups such as the Dorset Blind Association, who were given use of the rink for an hour when members visited Brewery Square on a day trip.