Councillor hopes to set up Taunton's Christmas lights working group

2:32pm Wednesday 3rd October 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Daniel Milligan

Cllr Kelly Durdan Cllr Kelly Durdan

A COUNCILLOR has come forward as the County Gazette went to press hoping to set up a working group in a last ditch attempt to make Taunton’s Christmas lights a success.

Kelly Durdan hopes to hear from people and businesses to see if funds can be raised to brighten up the town centre in December.

She said: “No one likes a town centre without Christmas lights and every year we are let down so I want people’s ideas to get something done about it.”

Let us know your thoughts by commenting below and email Cllr Durdan at cllr.k.durdan@googlemail.com

Comments(17)

lee3008 says...
2:39pm Wed 3 Oct 12

It wouldn't cost much if the lights (or at least some of them) were solar, and businesses could help by providing these. Good decorations would call business in-to town surely...

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St. Austell says...
3:02pm Wed 3 Oct 12

Better Miss Durdan directs her efforts towards raising funds for the poor to have a glass of "cloudy" in Cider City at Christmas.

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FreeSpeech? says...
3:04pm Wed 3 Oct 12

Good on ya Kelly, but i fear the main reasons you are lacking business support is the amount of charity shops that begrudge paying for anything & that includes staff and business rates. Another thing that puts people off visiting Taunton is the road chaos that you face and once that is overcome the small fortune you pay to park in substandard council car parks like the crescent for which you need to drive a Sherman tank to negotiate the potholes. Anyway good luck with your mission & any attempt is better than none.

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Mi_Coc says...
4:01pm Wed 3 Oct 12

Its criminal how scc and tdbc buy ipads and spend 3 million on a lawn but turn round and say they can't afford some xmas lights in taunton.

The carparks are horrendous however they have lots of empty park and ride spaces if you can get there safely with the worn cracked top dressing on our roads and the potholes.

So far the only thing that tdbc have not said they wont pay is its wages bill! Funny that!

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Mi_Coc says...
4:02pm Wed 3 Oct 12

Its criminal how scc and tdbc buy ipads and spend 3 million on a lawn but turn round and say they can't afford some xmas lights in taunton.

The carparks are horrendous however they have lots of empty park and ride spaces if you can get there safely with the worn cracked top dressing on our roads and the potholes.

So far the only thing that tdbc have not said they wont pay is its wages bill! Funny that!

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souwesterly says...
6:31pm Wed 3 Oct 12

Does anyone have any idea what a decent display of lights would cost - to buy and to run.
I doubt it would be much more than a few months salary for one of the money-wasting pen-pushing all-mouth-and-no action councillors......but I bet not one of them would be prepared to donate some to the cause.
With all the 'civic price' things being bandied about, surely having some decent lights is one thing that would be appreciated by shoppers, shopkeepers and visitors alike - so why can't a sum be allocated from the apparently bottomless coffers?
Why should the shops, already hard pressed by the recession and excessive council taxes, have to fork out?
The Christmas lights are not just to increase sales - they're for the town to be proud of.
Or at least - they could be something to be proud of.....

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St. Austell says...
6:57pm Wed 3 Oct 12

souwesterly wrote:
Does anyone have any idea what a decent display of lights would cost - to buy and to run.
I doubt it would be much more than a few months salary for one of the money-wasting pen-pushing all-mouth-and-no action councillors......but I bet not one of them would be prepared to donate some to the cause.
With all the 'civic price' things being bandied about, surely having some decent lights is one thing that would be appreciated by shoppers, shopkeepers and visitors alike - so why can't a sum be allocated from the apparently bottomless coffers?
Why should the shops, already hard pressed by the recession and excessive council taxes, have to fork out?
The Christmas lights are not just to increase sales - they're for the town to be proud of.
Or at least - they could be something to be proud of.....
Surprise, surprise Barnstaple has always managed to have attractive Christmas lighting despite being a smaller municipal borough than Taunton. I just wonder why!

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meekmeek says...
7:33pm Wed 3 Oct 12

the solution is simple. dont pay council workers to head up projects to get funds after denying funds. its just a ploy to get more overtime. instead put that project managers wages into buying lights. then instead of begging for more money, take the money out of the car park pay and display and use that to buy lights. and lastly still not getting the council to ask for funds, ask any individuals or businesses to pay the donations to the decorations suppliers direct. we dont want the council cancelling funds just as an excuse to rip more people off for their own profits.

who is the decorations supplier.. ill pay them direct..

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FreeSpeech? says...
8:00pm Wed 3 Oct 12

Might have had enough money if they had used the revenue from that carpark that's just had £3m worth of turf laid over it.

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meekmeek says...
8:16pm Wed 3 Oct 12

freespeech.

the £3m castle green was funded with a specialist budget from central government for that single and sole purpose.
separately its local council budget that needs to fund the lights. im sure car parks that have not been revamped for decades, that have paid for themselves multiple times over can easily live a month, using that months income to buy lights.

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FreeSpeech? says...
8:27pm Wed 3 Oct 12

meekmeek wrote:
freespeech.

the £3m castle green was funded with a specialist budget from central government for that single and sole purpose.
separately its local council budget that needs to fund the lights. im sure car parks that have not been revamped for decades, that have paid for themselves multiple times over can easily live a month, using that months income to buy lights.
May i point out that its irrelevant where the money for the revamp came from as my point was the loss of that revenue that has been caused by it.

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Dr Dave says...
8:24am Thu 4 Oct 12

So.....can I get this straight - Taunton is going to have NO Christmas lights this year????

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souwesterly says...
12:15pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Dr Dave wrote:
So.....can I get this straight - Taunton is going to have NO Christmas lights this year????
Do you think anyone would notice?

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St. Austell says...
1:27pm Thu 4 Oct 12

The more and more I read of Taunton and this matter I am convinced that it is a complete and utter loser. Perhaps it should return to its "Cider City" days when so many just retreated into oblivion after copious quantities of Taunton Traditional boosted by Natch topped up with a quarter bottle of cheap gin.

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mooman1000 says...
4:00pm Thu 4 Oct 12

So a Tory is backing lights for the town centre best she speak to the Tory run council that is not going to fund anything.

Now lets see where some light money could have come from.....how about the olympic torch which cost the tdbc £50k to put on!

This council is a joke, too many fingers and too many pies!

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FreeSpeech? says...
8:11am Fri 5 Oct 12

mooman1000 wrote:
So a Tory is backing lights for the town centre best she speak to the Tory run council that is not going to fund anything.

Now lets see where some light money could have come from.....how about the olympic torch which cost the tdbc £50k to put on!

This council is a joke, too many fingers and too many pies!
Not just this council as they all have their noses in the trough!

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Somerset_BTGOG says...
10:51am Sat 6 Oct 12

How much would be saved if we turned off all the traffic lights in town for a couple of months?

It might help to get the traffic moving again as well.

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