Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Council opt to light up our season: Haringey notch up biggest rise in Xmas lighting as others cut
The BBC have this morning published the results of a freedom of information driven survey on how much the spending of London's councils on Christmas lighting has varied this year over last. Almost half the capital's council have cut spending, some drastically. Bucking the trend, Haringey has been the borough with the biggest spending increase.
BBC London TV found an average reduction of spending on Christmas lights and decorations across all 32 London councils of 15.5%. In some areas spending has been cut by up to 90%. The biggest cut - in Labour-controlled Islington - saw the total spend down from £138,000 last year to £11,700.
Against the trend, the biggest rise in spending was in Haringey, where the the amount used for decorations was up by £41,740, to £66,740.
A Haringey council spokeswoman said: "We were happy to spend this money as part of our commitment to supporting our local traders in these difficult economic times.
The Haringey figures suggest an oddly rounded spend last year of £25,000; small beans by most measures in both years and much smaller than many other boroughs. So nothing to get worked up about methinks. In fact I'd second the Council's decision to make sure our streets are looking as festive as possible this year in particular.
And by the way, I imagine this has nothing to do with our own virtual Christmas tree since the funds for that came from Boris' Outer London Fund.
Full BBC article here.
Tags for Forum Posts: christmas decorations, council spending
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JulieB on
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Why is the council committed to 'supporting our local traders in these difficult times' rather than supporting local communities - eg, massive cuts to children centres, libraries and park maintenance? An increase of £41,740 in Christmas lights while cutting everywhere else sounds like madness to me - Bah humbug.
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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good point. 41K would have paid for two youth workers
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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on
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Probably 4... most frontline youth workers were on 15hrs a week (3hrs x 5 days a week for afterschool or evening)
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Permalink Reply by linka on
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And there was I feeling a little bit embarrassed by the contrast between the creaky Green Lanes lights and the tasteful tree adornments of Upper Street. The annual numbers surely don't tell the whole story...
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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Yes, I wonder if this figure is correct. It's not as though there are loads more lights than last year, except the Salisbury "tree", and although electricity has gone up in cost that doesn't explain such an increase, unless other parts of the borough are ablaze with fairy lights. I thought the usual thing was for businesses to sponsor Xmas lights, not the council - I assume this is what has happened in Islington, where the Green looks lovely.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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It appears that many parts of the borough had new lights this year. But, let's bear in mind these are not big figures and are still half of what Islington spent last year.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I like the Christmas tree lights along Green Lanes. I think they are new, which would explain the budget increase, and are a nice change from the previous ones.
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Hmmm, I'm sure there'd be more money to save if Haringey enforced the boroughs satellite dish owners to daub them with luminous paint. once done there would be absolutely no reason to cover GL or most of Haringey for that matter in lights and the Outer London Fund could be better spent on repainting our bridge mother of all welcomes.
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