Increase in cash for Barnard Castle’s festive lights

BARNARD Castle’s popular festive lights will continue to shine brightly next year after town councillors backed an increase in spending on the illuminations.
They agreed the annual budget should be increased by £500 to £7,500 next year, with an extra £1,000 available to lights organisers to cover any shortfall in fundraising as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 situation.
The town council pays the Barnard Castle Christmas Lights (BCCL) group to organise the festive displays each year.
In addition to cash from the council, the group’s volunteers also organise fundraising events throughout the year to help cover the cost of supplying new displays and repairing existing lights.
In a report to the town council’s partnerships committee, Phil Crichton, chairman of the Christmas lights group, said the group had enough cash in reserve to “comfortably” fund this year’s illuminations.
But he added that all activities had been shelved for 2020 as a result of the pandemic and the likelihood was fundraising was unlikely to
resume for some time to come.
“BCCL has had some success with donations received via the new Barney Lights website,” he said.
“However, finding ways of raising funds for the 2021 season remains a priority.”
In addition, he said the group had identified several sections of lighting that needed to be replaced or renewed for next Christmas.
Cllr Sandra Moorhouse said that while spending on other events should be cut, the Christmas lights remained popular with everyone in the town.
She said the budget for remembrance events – which include Aviation Day and Red Ensign Day as well as the November parade – should be reduced from the current £1,250 to £500.
Cllr Moorhouse also questioned whether £2,500 should be spent on a council-organised Christmas event in addition to the lights, as has been the practice in pre-Covid years. She said: “A Christmas event for £2,500 seems a lot to me.
“I am not sure we will get back to what we have done in the past. Things will not be quite the same.
“I think some of that money should be rejigged to make available £1,000 for the Christmas lights – they could be in dire straits.
“The lights are the one thing everyone in town appreciates. It is important to spend our money wisely and sympathetically.”
Committee chairman Cllr Ian Kirkbride agreed, confirming that fundraising for the Christmas lights had been “severely curtailed” .
Councillors agreed that when the budget is set in January, spending on remembrance events should be cut to £500; the Christmas lights budget should be increased by £500 to £7,500; £1,000 should be set aside as a contingency to cover any further Christmas lights costs if fundraising proves impossible next year; and spending on a town council Christmas event should be capped at £500.