Christmas transforms the experience of trading in Winchester. Most of the year, it's a struggle to pay the rent because the local residents and tourists don't add up to enough cutsomers for many shopkeepers to ay the huge rents and rates.

At Christmas, we benefit from not only the surge in local shoppers seen everywhere but the influx of visitors from far and wide to 'England's Christmas Capital', as the adverts put it. Some rival cities may dispute this claim but look at the facts. A Christmas market second to none coupled with an ice rink in the unbelievably romantic setting of Winchester Cathedral. More excellent independent shops than you could hope for (enough about us). Christmas lights along an historic high street that are white and lacey like the very definition of fairy lights.

People arrive by the coachload to savour the spirit of Christmas. How blessed this city is to have such an enterprising council, they must think. How wrong they are. Councillor Robert Humby and his team at the Economic Development department of the Council do a lot to encourage business but when it comes to Christmas, the other departments of the Council are more Scrooge than Santa Claus.

The Christmas Market and Ice Rink are the brainchildren of the Cathedral. All the Council has to do to help is to provide lots of signage, especially to alternative entrances. They don't, just as they don't signpost effectively any shopping off the High Street.

The lights? They're the creation of the Business Improvement District. The impressive advertising campaign, surely. No, that's BID too.

As for the historic High Street, thronging with people, all we ask of the Council is to not mess things up, but they have by placing a street market right down the middle and creating such congestion that people can hardly move. Many must be wondering whether to return to England's Christmas Capital.

This blog was written by Paul Lewis, owner of the marketing consultancy The Lewis Experience and online retailer Your Life Your Style, and former Head of Marketing and Operations at The Mayflower Theatre. You can connect with him on Google+ and LinkedIn.