THE PEOPLE of Otley have been thanked for making the town’s second Snowman Trail a great success.

The 2018 event saw nearly 100 homes and shops create all kinds of snow figures, made from a variety of materials, which were displayed during December.

Organiser and Otley Town Councillor Nigel Francis said the ‘incredible’ quality of the entries this year made judging very hard.

He said: “This year’s event was split into four categories. First there was the Town Centre Snowman, which involves businesses in the town. This resulted in our largest snowman ever, at Stephen H Smith’s Garden Centre, which stood at about 10 feet tall.

“Alongside this there were snowmen of every size and shape.

“Our second category was for the snowmen in various houses around Otley which further split into three classes - Snowman in a Window, Snowman in the Garden and Snowman Painting.”

The judging was carried out by Cllr Francis, who runs children’s charity Hang on to a Dream, and his son, Callum.

They had distributed more than 2,600 booklets to publicise the trail, which has raised over £1,000 for Hang on to a Dream.

Cllr Francis said: “It has been the greatest trail in terms of the amount of work and quality of the snow men, women and children. They were made of everything from plastic cups to wooden trays, from sheets to tin cans. I cannot thank enough the people and businesses for all the hard work they have done.

“Also, I would like to thank Callum for the many hours he spent putting together the trail and the booklet. We hope to build the trail and make it something that everyone looks forward to.”

Cllr Francis has also presented the 2018 Spirit of Christmas award which is given to an Otley business for embracing the festive mood. More than 20 shops took part this year. The winner was Beauty Within, with Althams Travel the runner-up and St Gemma’s Hospice shop third. Highly commended awards went to Specsavers and Bizarre Bazaar.