Question mark over March Christmas lights as costs spiral

There is a question mark over the future of March town Christmas lights as the cost of last year’s switch-on is set to bust its budget.

March Town Council clerk Sarah Lemmon outlined her concerns about the budget and what the future might hold for the town’s biggest event of the year at Monday night’s council meeting.

She said the council had based its budget for the switch-on on the costs of the 2023 event – which was £16,000 – and had set aside £20,000.

However, she said with invoices already in the costs were looking likely to be at least £25,000 and she feared the event would be even more expensive for Christmas 2025.

Ms Lemmon explained that sponsorship and donations were down this year, and more would need to be done to bring in extra revenue to guarantee the future of the lights.

She said this is especially true due to changes in the rules around putting the lights up, which the council has managed to circumnavigate in recent years.

Ms Lemmon said Balfour Beatty – the infrastructure firm that looks after the county’s street lights – has in the past supervised two electricians who have volunteered to put up the town’s lights.

However, she said: “We have been found out and we won’t be able to get away with it next year.”

Instead, the council will need to either find volunteers with two specific qualifications – the NRSWA and Code G39 – or pay for someone qualified to carry out the installation of the lights.

She said that is likely to be extremely costly and said Wisbech Town Council pay £26,000 to have their lights installed.

Ms Lemmon said she normally starts planning the switch-on this month including the ordering of the tree and she did not want to “crack on” without informing councillors of the possible cost implications.

Cllr Jan French said costs could be saved by reducing the size of the Christmas tree as the county council’s highways had asked that it be smaller in December 2025 following its move to Broad Street.

Mayor Gary Christy suggested it might be cheaper for the council to train up people so they are qualified to do the lights, but it would be finding volunteers to do it.

After a bit more discussion it was decided that it was such an important matter it needed to be fully looked at when all the costs from last year were known.

It was agreed to therefore defer the debate to the next meeting, but Ms Lemmon would work on organising things as if the switch-on would go ahead as normal.