Castlebar Christmas lights to cost €35,000

Castlebar Council to spend €35,000 on Mall Christmas lights


Anton McNulty
antonmcnulty@mayonews.ie

The destination for Sam Maguire is not yet known but Castlebar Town Council had Christmas on their mind having agreed to spend €35,000 on Christmas lights to cover half the Mall.
The cost of lighting ten trees along the Mall opposite the court house was priced at €3,500 per tree by the Town Manager, Seamus Granahan who stressed that the lights would be permanent. He explained that the cost of lighting 32 trees in the centre of town would be around €17,000 but these would not be permanent.
Mr Granahan informed the councillors that the big cost involved in Christmas lighting was the removal of them and placing them in storage and this year they were ‘going for quality’. The lights along the Mall, he said would go from in front of the Court House towards the Green Bay guesthouse.
The decision to only light up a partial area of the Mall was questioned by Cllr Blackie Gavin who asked if it would ‘look funny’ and asked if every second tree could be lit. Mr Granahan replied that the trees at the back of the Mall were big and needed to be pruned and that it would be expensive to cover these trees at night.
Cllr Gavin said he had no problem with the lights along the Mall but asked that they be done ‘as soon as possible’ to see how they looked when lit. He said he did not want a situation where the public would criticise the Town Council for only lighting up half the Mall and did not want a ‘botched job’ for the town.
This was supported by the town Mayor, Cllr Brendan Henaghan but Mr Granahan stressed that the Mall would be lit in a phased basis and this year was phase one. He appreciated that it ‘might look odd’ but they should be able to do more next year and that they will save money by having permanent lights on the trees.

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