THE festoon lights that adorn parts of the town centre during the festive period will now stay illuminated all year round.
At the full town council meeting on Wednesday 13th March, councillors unanimously voted to keep four sets of the string lights switched on along Cheap Street, Catherine Hill, Stony Street and Palmer Street, after several traders and businesses in the community expressed an interest in keeping the lights on during hours of darkness, after the festive period.
Speaking at the meeting, cllr Nick Dove said, “At Christmas time, the streets look quite magical. We [also] know there have been a couple of incidents along Cheap Street where people have fallen into the [stream of water]. I found nobody who has said anything negative about it, and I have tried. I think it will make those streets more attractive as we move into a town centre where people are going there for experiences to eat and drink.”
The lights will be plugged straight into the ‘raw’ electricity supply in Frome and switched on during the winter (October to March) from 4pm to 11pm and in the summer months, (April to September), from 7pm to 11pm and can be changed if needed.
To keep the lights on all year, the town council will spend under £500. Frome Town Council’s environment manager, Rob Holden, said that the initial set up cost will be £2,741 to include testing the bolts that are holding the lights to the side of buildings and ongoing maintenance.
“The cost is not the main element, my working out is that it’s about 10p an hour,” explained Rob. “The other cost is going to be maintaining the bulbs when they are up and there’s bolts in the side of the buildings holding up the wires. They are up year-round, and those bolts need to be tested and there’s a cost for that.”
He also explained that due to the fact that the lights are already up, the town will save funds in the Christmas Lights budget.
“Because we don’t put them up each year, there’s a saving of around £4,000, and because we don’t take them down each year, there is a further saving of £1,000,” says Rob. “We pay £500 for electricity, and we save £4,500!
“And lastly, there’s the possibility, which Nick has been exploring with the owners of the High Pavement, to add one more string going across at the end of Palmer Street going to the High Pavement. [This will cost] £1,200 to get an extension to Palmer Street.”
Currently, there is no start date as to when the lights will be switched on, as the town council is still looking for an electrical supplier, “You don’t pay the distribution network operator; you pay an electrical company. I have tried three different electrical operators and so far no one wants to take our money on this, but we will [keep trying],” said Rob.
“[Also] we have already asked Somerset Highways to confirm that the existing permission, which is time-limited, can be year-round. We have asked that twice and have yet to get a confirmed reply. As we have asked twice, we are going to move towards assuming we have done due-diligence on that one.”
Resilience officer at Frome Town Council, Jo Morris, asked what the lights would cost the town in terms of carbon.
Rob said, “It’s very small, it’s literally 10 pence an hour for all lights, so the amount of carbon is very, very limited. There are a number of people you can seek to pay and it’s a good question whether one of those is a green energy provider. I haven’t had any reply from anybody; it’s a good question, and we can try to make sure [we go with] someone who provides green energy.”
Cllr Nick Dove said, “We will make the town more magical and lovely to walk around at night and what’s not to like!”
With the motion approved by the council, the lights could be turned on at the end of the spring.
