Portsmouth City council approve extra spending on Christmas lights

Portsmouth city council hope the improved lights will support businesses over the winter

A city centre's Christmas lights are to receive a £120,000 revamp.

Portsmouth City Council hopes the improvements will help support struggling businesses over the festive period.

The money will be spent on replacing 130 lights, as well as 179 plugs, across the city.

Lee Hunt, cabinet member for resources, said the improved lights will "add to the enjoyment" and "help to attract shoppers city-wide".

"We are keenly aware that retail is having a hard time so Christmas and New Year is especially important," he added.

130 lights will be replaced across the city.

The allocation of funding was unanimously approved by councillors.

Suzy Horton, deputy leader and ward councillor for Central Southsea, said: "It's sometimes difficult to quantify the impact of this but people feel there's a different atmosphere around Christmas and traders have told us that enhances their activity."

Concerns were raised after a council report questioned the condition of lights, and the plugs used to power them, across the city.

Each replacement connection point is estimated to cost £500 and the total cost could be as high as £89,500.

Replacing and repairing the lights will cost a further £32,500.

With no funding allocated in this year's budget, the cabinet approved the use of the Community Infrastructure Levy to pay for the improvements.

The work on the lights will use about half of the remaining money available from the levy, which has been taken from contributions made by developers.

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