 Dressing up for Ascot is a feature of the royal event |
More than 200,000 visitors travelled to York racecourse as the city played host to Royal Ascot. Racegoers praised the facilities at the Knavesmire, which acted as host for the five day event while the Berkshire course was being revamped.
And despite some disappointing weather it has been hailed as a great success.
"We're delighted with the way it has gone," said Royal Ascot co-ordinator Nick Smith. "It's just been a magical week all round."
Congestion eased
York City Council spent two years preparing for the event, which ended on Saturday and is expected to have generated an extra �60m for the local economy.
On Tuesday, crowds of 36,000 were in attendance to see the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrive by horse-drawn carriage for the royal procession.
Other royals in attendance during the week included Prince Charles, his wife the Duchess of Cornwall and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.
Traffic problems were minimised after reports of eight mile tailbacks on the A64 on Tuesday morning.
Crime down
By Wednesday, new provisions had been made for car parking and racegoers heeded advice to arrive earlier, easing congestion on the roads.
North Yorkshire Police said the policing of Ascot had also been a great success with minimal disruption in the city and very little reported crime.
Despite the huge increase in the number of visitors to York, in some areas crime actually went down.
In the first four days of the event there were 15 reported thefts from vehicles, compared to 55 for the same time last year, and the number of reported assaults also fell from 25 to 22.
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