harpenden town council festive light scheme - introduction of poles to town greens

We have received a number of questions regarding the introduction of poles around Town Greens in Harpenden. This update aims to address those questions and provide important context.

Background to the festive lights display

HTC has festive lighting displays in the High Street, Batford and Southdown. We have been producing festive displays each year for a long time. The specification for the current schemes was approved by the previous Council in November 2020. This approval included a mix of ‘show tree’ displays, festoons around Town Greens, lamp column displays and ground based features.

Normally the specification for Christmas lights would be reviewed every five years, but issues have arisen this year which has required HTC to consider interim solutions for 2024.

What are the usual key issues associated with Festive lights displays?

Putting up festive displays is a complicated process and there are a number of challenges that HTC faces each year. These include:

• Securing licences from Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) – This includes carrying out significant electrical and structural testing of street light columns that don’t belong to HTC.
• Lamp column displays are regularly damaged by lorries
• Ground displays are stolen or subject to vandalism
• Significant increases to costs caused by inflation and other wider changes.

What additional key issues have we had to contend with in 2024?

There have been two additional issues that have occurred in 2024 that have meant we have needed to find an interim solution for this year.

Firstly the Town Centre lamp columns displays are no longer serviceable impacting a large element of the display. HCC has recently suggested changes to the way  they licence festive displays which includes the requirement for HTC to carry out additional electrical infrastructure works. We are unclear if these additional requirements are deliverable but, even if they were, it would add significant upfront and annual costs to HTC that make the continuation of lamp columns displays unviable.

The second additional issue relates to the failure of trees in key locations in the Town.

There are two tree failures that have had a significant impact: one on Church Green and one on Leyton Green.

When the Church Green tree failed and fell unexpectedly in May 2024, not only was it the end of one of the two festive light show trees on Church Green, it also wiped out the tree festoon, power supply and supporting catenary wire that encircled Church Green in its entirety. In doing so, it also cut the power supply to the second and only remaining festive light show tree. By failing, this tree has had a major impact on the festive lights display in that area. The second tree failure was on Leyton Green where a tree had to be removed following urgent issues found during a periodic Health & Safety Survey. These two tree failures meant that we could no longer rely on trees to house festoons on Church Green and Leyton Green.

What options were considered for 2024?

The lamp column displays and the tree festoons were significant components of the town centre display. Unfortunately there were limited alternative options to deliver the 2024 display.

The first option was to increase the number of ground displays to replace the aerial elements of the scheme. However this was discounted given the annual vandalism and thefts mentioned above.

The second option was to decorate additional show trees around the Town Greens. However this is very costly and carries the risks associated with tree failure set out above.

The third option was to install poles on Church Green and Leyton Green to house festoons as an interim solution in 2024.

A fourth option was to not replace the lamp displays or broken festoon in any way for the 2024 display. This would mean that there would be a significant visible gap in the display in 2024. The knock on effect would also mean changes to the annual Christmas Lights Switch on event which brings thousands of people into the Town each year.

The issues were considered by our Community Services Committee and the Committee had the limited realistic choice of either option 3 or 4. It was agreed to install the black poles as per option 3 for 2024.

Information about the poles/festoons

The poles are considered to be a temporary installation for 2024 to provide an interim solution to the key issues set out above. HTC will be considering the long term solutions to festive displays in early 2025. This will include whether the black poles are to remain beyond 2024.

The poles are installed at key distances between each other for safety purposes to maintain appropriate tensions of the festoons themselves.

There is the potential to utilise the poles for additional uses such as floral displays i.e. hanging baskets. HTC is in the last year of its current floral display contract with an external contractor Luton Traded Services. This contract will not be continuing in 2025 and HTC will soon be considering what the future floral display looks like. No decisions have been made on this to date.

The poles do not relate in any way to the car parking proposals being put forward by St Albans City & District Council.

How much does the festive display cost and how much were the poles?

Festive lighting displays are expensive and the annual HTC revenue budget for festive lights is £50,490. HTC has had an extensive festive lights display for some time. This covers:

• Annual contractor costs – installation, takedown, storage
• Hire costs for items that we don’t own
• Three Christmas trees and associated delivery/installation
• Structural and electrical testing
• Electricity

In addition to the revenue budget, in 2020 the then Council agreed to allocate £100k of capital/earmarked reserve to purchase displays and make improvements to deliver the current scheme. At the point in which the Community Services Committee took the decision to install the poles in June 2024, there was £20,875 remaining of that allocated reserve.

In total we have installed 40 poles to deliver the 2024 interim scheme and the total cost of these poles is£12,000 including installation. This has been funded using the remaining allocated reserve mentioned above.

As these are temporary installations at this time, there are no annual maintenance costs.

Some of the poles have replaced rusting grey signposts and the signage has been moved from those old posts onto the new ones.

Festive lights display 2025 and beyond

HTC will be considering the future of the scheme early next year. In doing so it will need to balance the positive impact that the lights have on the Town and the issues/barriers that impact on costs and delivery.

In order to continue with a scheme that is on the scale of what has always been delivered, there will need to be changes to the public realm.

This statement is available as a pdf here.

For further information please contact:

Carl Cheevers, Town Clerk, Harpenden Town Council.

Email: carl.cheevers@harpenden.gov.uk or call 01582 768278.