PLANS are going ahead to improve Marlborough Christmas lights this year, and councillors are now asking the whole town, not just shopkeepers, to help out with the cost of the new look.

After a lot of hard work from the community a few years ago, Marlborough Town Council agreed to spend up to £10,000 a year on the lights. Plans to improve the display for 2016 will mean spending another £4,000 on top of that, partly to pay for low-energy LED lightbulbs.

At a meeting last Wednesday, councillors agreed to carry out works that may be needed to ensure the lights go ahead for this year but to try and get help with the extra cash needed. It was suggested that retailers in the High Street could be approached to help cover the extra costs of the new lights set-up, but it was agreed that the cost shouldn’t fall just on the retailers as it is a community-based project which involves the whole town.

Coun Bryan Castle said: “I do feel the cost shouldn’t be beholden to the town council to pay up for it. I think it’s a job for the community like they have done with Marlborough in Bloom. The community took the In Bloom work and have done a great job with it, but I don’t feel like the town council should be the main providers for the lights.”

Shelley Parker, Marlborough town clerk, said: “With a High Street full of listed and historic buildings, our contractors have to be particularly careful in terms of fixings to walls and make sure, through stress tests, if they can withstand the weight of lighting displays in a variety of weathers.

“Various other changes have been recommended and councillors voted to move forward with the suggested works as well as voting in favour of replacing all bulbs with LED versions - a real long term saving. If the lighting displays were to be replaced entirely, then substantial additional funding would need to be raised. No decisions have yet been made on colours – we receive as many requests to leave them white and blue as requests for a change to a coloured festive feel.

“We are looking at ways of raising the additional money for the lights. There may be environmental grants available, to cover LED bulbs, for example. Coun Alec Light will be holding a car boot sale to help with the funding too. The switch-on is handled through our events budget and a certain amount of fundraising too. There are a number of groups all working hard on bringing the event together.”