Christmas lights in Clonmel's town centre won't be as good as last year

There will be Christmas lights in Clonmel’s town centre this year but they won’t be to the same level as last year.

That’s according to Sinead Carr, Manager of Clonmel Borough District.

Concern has been expressed across the community recently about whether the town centre will be decorated with festive lights this year.

The issue was first raised in September by local councillor, John FitzGerald, who has stated that the small group of business people responsible for providing the lights had all but thrown in the towel because of escalating costs.

Speaking to The Nationalist, Sinead Carr said that the three or four traders who had organised the provision of the lights, and “who were doing all the heavy lifting”, were finding that it was getting more and more difficult to get funding from other traders in the town.

“There were issues with that between multinationals and others.

“I understand, to be fair to the individuals involved, that they have pulled back. They have had enough of it and have said they had been banging their heads against a brick wall at this stage.”

Because of that, she said that this Christmas “will not be the same as it was last year”.

“What I’m looking for is for people to come in and say we have an interest in working with the council on maximising Christmas for the town and putting something in place. 

“We will absolutely meet people more than halfway, but I’ve got to have a group to work with.”

Sinead Carr said she was aware that people would point out that the traders pay their rates, “which they do, to be fair, and pay their tax, but the council is only part of the overall community”.

“We are like another business, we just contribute money to the lights. We can only spend what we have.”

She said: “We work best when we work together. And we get more out of everything when we work together, and we will only get a partial job done if it’s left to one or another group. There’s a real value in us working together in relation to this.”

She said the council would continue to run the other Christmas events that it organised each year, saying “we will add value to whatever the traders are doing. Our job is to get people into the town centre, the lights are one option”.

“There are other initiatives like Win Wednesday. We would spend anything between €3,500-€4,000 on Win Wednesday from the council coffers, where people win vouchers to shop locally.”

She said other events included the Santa visit, initiatives with the library and museum and a variety of other different activities.

“The object is to create activities and events that pull people into the town in addition to the Christmas lights.”

Ms Carr said that the council made an annual contribution of  €6,000 to the lights and by the time other costs associated with the lights were paid, there could be an additional €3,000 or €4,000 on top of that by the end of the year or into the following year.

“Christmas to me is more than the lights, it’s the other pieces that require a significant amount of funding.” 

She also said that Christmas was only four weeks of the year, and there were other initiatives throughout the year that the council also funded.

She stated that the traders had been responsible for putting the lights up, managing the funding and the payment of the lights, and the council worked in collaboration with them.

“What I have been saying for a significant period of time is that we need to look at the governance structure in terms of a better engagement with ourselves in relation to finance, rather than leaving it to the last minute. And to be fair to those three traders (who were responsible for the lights), they needed additional support and needed more people to put money into the fund, and also different funding initiatives needed to be looked at. 

“For instance, in Cahir they have a coffee morning, rather than relying on the same thing the whole time.”

She said the three or four people who organised the lights “did a huge amount for the town over the past while”.

“What I have asked is that we would get more engagement, that we would get a structure in place and get a more organised plan in place so that it’s not left to the last minute where there’s a panic, as there is now, in terms of doing it.”

She acknowledged that the vast majority of the population believe that the council should step in and provide the lights. 

“I have a certain budget every year, and that budget is based on what people have asked for and what we have been able to contribute.”