“SHAPE up or ship out”.

That’s the message from council leaders to the operator of Southampton’s Christmas market.

Council leader Simon Letts says he is “underwhelmed” with the current offering of the annual bazaar.

And with no major changes to previous offerings on the cards for this year’s market, he says the operator must make a “substantial improvement” or expect someone else to run it from next year onwards.

The market will open tomorrow and run until December 28, and feature entertainment including an oompah band, jazz act and pianist.

Last year’s event brought in crowds of more than 200,000 people a week, and there are hopes that figure will be topped this year.

Daily Echo:

Organiser Paul Lewis (pictured above), from Southern Market Traders, says it will feature 41 food and retail stalls, including the ever-popular German bar and grill.

But while there were calls last year to put on something different, including lights or an ice rink, Mr Lewis says this year’s bazaar will be “much of the same really”.

He said: “There’s nothing much different, it’s as much as we could do.

“You don’t change a winning formula do you?”He said there would be no ice rink at this year’s event as he had “left it too late”, and said that chalets at the markets would have their own Christmas lights.

But with the contract to run the market up next year, he added: “We’re five years into the contract for it, maybe it’s time for a change, but we’ll see.”

Daily Echo:

And Labour council boss Simon Letts (pictured above ) says he has been less then impressed with what’s on offer at the market.

He told the Daily Echo: “We are underwhelmed with the offer brought in by the current contractor.

“We will be going out to tender next year and we expect a substantial improvement from the current operator or we will be bringing in a different operator.

“We can do better. The provider needs to up their game.

“What we need is the sort of offer that’s going to attract visitors to the city at Christmas time – it needs to be different and allow Southampton to stand out in the crowds for Christmas shoppers.”

Cllr Letts says his vision would be for extra festive activities to take place at Guildhall Square, potentially including an ice rink, while the city could also have its own Christmas lights.