Will there be Christmas lights to illuminate the streets of Clonmel this year?

Will there be Christmas lights in Clonmel’s town centre this year?
That was the question posed at a meeting of Clonmel Borough District.
Concerned about the escalating cost of electricity and the “huge cost” involved in erecting the lights and taking them down, Cllr John FitzGerald said that the situation had reached crisis point.
“If people come into town this Christmas and there isn’t a light on we’ll hear all about it,” he stated.
He said that the issue of the Christmas lights was bigger than the town centre traders, who were responsible for the provision of the lights.
It would cost almost €60,000 to provide them this year.
The way that the town dealt with the lights was no longer fit for purpose and an overall strategy was needed.
If there were no Christmas lights this year it would add to the ire of people who believed the council wasn’t doing enough for the town centre.
Cllr FitzGerald said that everybody got enjoyment from the lights and the responsibility for their provision shouldn’t solely rest with the business community in the town centre.
The contributions that the traders received from other businesses wasn’t enough to provide festive lighting, and wouldn’t “scratch the surface” of escalating costs.
They needed a wider audience beyond the dedicated shops in the town centre who bore most of the cost.
He was aware that other towns funded their festive lighting through the rates.
They had been talking about other festivals in the town, but Christmas is the oldest festival on the planet and in a Christian country such as Ireland it is truly celebrated, said Cllr FitzGerald. District Manager Sinead Carr said this issue arose every single year, and every year she asked the traders to get together in January and come up with a strategy for the lights for the following Christmas.
However, Ms Carr said she hadn’t heard anything from the traders in that regard since she had “first sat in this seat” in 2006.
She acknowledged that those who organised the lights received very little support from a significant number of retailers in the town, and there hadn’t been a buy-in from all the traders.
“I’m not handing out money until I see a strategy in place,” said Ms Carr.
She said the business community needed to sit down with the council, which was willing to work with the traders.
She said that the council always worked in partnership with every other community group such as Tidy Towns, heritage groups and those that organised festivals.
Ms Carr said that if the traders were willing to come in and sit down with the council they could look at the various options.
They had to work in a collaborative manner, she added.