Leader Vince Maple says it's with regret he's made this decision, but one that was a necessity as they have a forecast overspend of £17 million for this year.
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00:00 It's almost that time of year again, Christmas is almost here. Well that means very soon
00:08 councils are going to have to start thinking about putting up their grand Christmas lights
00:12 displays.
00:13 Part of what makes these displays so special is you get to see your everyday high street
00:17 transformed into something magical through lights and colour. But come December in Medway
00:21 it won't be looking too different from how it does every day as the council have announced
00:25 they won't be hosting their annual Christmas lights display.
00:29 This event has lured in thousands every year and for many it officially marks the start
00:35 of Christmas. Medway council's decision to scrap the lights this year hopes to save
00:40 £75,000. They say this was necessary after they ran into financial difficulties with
00:47 a forecast overspend of £17m and rumours around bankruptcy.
00:52 Maybe they could have scaled back rather than just cutting it completely. When people are
00:57 struggling and things going out and watching the Christmas lights being turned on, just
01:01 cheers people up. I think it's just going to be a gloomy Christmas without the lights.
01:05 It's just going to dampen people's spirits. I'd rather have them cut back on the lights
01:08 than maybe cut back on the schools and dinners for the kids. Kids love it as well. You go
01:16 along the high street wherever you live and you see Christmas lights and the kids are
01:19 loving it. They'll come here and there's no lights.
01:21 This of course is a disappointing decision again, not a decision we've taken lightly.
01:25 I'm pleased that there will still be Christmas trees in every town centre, a number of our
01:29 libraries will still have community events, we'll still have the Dickens Market, we'll
01:34 still have the Phantom Eye, the Chatham Centre Theatre, so there is Christmas activity happening
01:39 across Medway and it is regrettable we've had to take this decision specifically around
01:43 the lights and with a £17m gap in our budget, we will have to take tough decisions.
01:50 For one local shop, it's Christmas all year round. For many years, Time Christmas used
01:55 to fix Medway Council's Christmas lights.
01:57 There's a lot of labour costs that come with these, so they already have the lights, but
02:03 it will be the labour costs that it will be for somebody to put them up as well as take
02:07 them down. They could have introduced timers and things like that, maybe reduced the time
02:11 that they're actually on and things. I know that the upgrade programme that we did with
02:16 them was to change things to LED where applicable to bring them to standard. It's not a great
02:21 deal but they could have reduced the amount of lights that they put up, so maybe not putting
02:25 all of them up, so just key areas of the town.
02:29 We contacted all of Kent's borough councils to see whether their light shows will go ahead
02:33 and how costly they are in comparison. Seven Oaks Light Display cost £29,000 and will
02:40 still go ahead this year. Ashford has scaled back on their budget this year and spent £40,000
02:45 on theirs. Maidstone, Dartford and Tambridge Wells will also all host light shows as usual.
02:51 We recognise it's more expensive than it was to put up Christmas lights, but we've worked
02:58 successfully with local businesses, for example, to help sponsor some of our lights. Our Christmas
03:03 tree in Tambridge is now sponsored by a local business. So I think by being creative you
03:07 can get round it and you don't need to be the council that steals Christmas and certainly
03:11 Tambridge and Morley won't be that.
03:13 Medway might not be the biggest district in Kent, but it does have more high streets to
03:17 cover than other districts. It has Gillingham, Chatham, Rochester, Reynham and Strood, and
03:23 therefore more lights to put up than some other parts of Kent, which is bound to be
03:27 more costly. Medway Council's Dickens Festival and other holiday celebrations will still
03:32 go ahead as planned.
03:34 Sophia Akin for KMTV in Medway.