Midsomer Norton Town Council has agreed to spend £8,714 on Christmas lights for 15 lamp posts along the High Street and Silver Street this year. This is equivalent to approximately £580 per lamp-post light.
The contract covers the hire, installation and removal of the decorations.
Councillors were provided with information about the size of the decorations, the prices quoted by different suppliers and the level of support available, but the report did not contain clear images showing what residents would see.
Despite not seeing the final light designs, the £8,714 contract was approved by the Town Council.
The lamp-post lights form part of the Town Council’s overall £20,000 budget for Christmas this year.
Within that budget, up to £5,000 has also been allocated for the town’s Christmas tree, leaving around £6,286 available for the Christmas Fayre and Lights Switch On.
The level of Christmas spending was the subject of considerable debate at the Town Council when setting this year’s budget.
The Town Council has previously discussed cutting the Christmas Fayre budget by around half.
During the budget meeting in January, councillors voted to reduce the Christmas budget due to wider financial pressures facing the Council.
At the meeting, councillors heard that approximately £480,000 was required for the Town Hall during the financial year, around £120,000 was needed to restore the Council’s general reserves and £60,000 was required for repairs to Orchard Hall and the Somer Centre. An additional £90,000 was allocated to employ a new Asset and Property Manager and contract in Locum Finance Officer services.
The final decision of the budget meeting was to raise the precept by 20.7%. The precept is the amount the Town Council asks B&NES Council to collect from Council Taxpayers on its behalf.
In previous years, the town’s Christmas tree has been sponsored. Sponsorship of both the tree and the lights has also been identified by councillors as one way of reducing the cost to Council Taxpayers.
The Town Council has not currently announced any sponsorship for this year’s festivities.
It is understood that this will be the first year Midsomer Norton Town Council has been required to provide its own Christmas lamp-post lights, after B&NES stopped providing the service.
This will also be the first year that Midsomer Norton Town Council has run the Christmas Fayre directly, after taking over its delivery from Midsomer Norton Community Trust.
It is anticipated that the final account for this year’s Summer Fayre, which was run directly by the Town Council for the first time, will be presented to the Community & Events Committee and Full Council on 14 September.
The final account should provide residents with a clearer picture of the cost of the Town Council delivering the event directly and allow comparison with previous arrangements.
