How much does your council spend on Christmas lights?

Whether a local celebrity has been roped in to switch on the lights, or the town has invested in Christmas markets or brand new lights, most of our councils have worked hard to bring a bit of festive spirit to Hertfordshire.

It might not be in the spirit of Christmas, but we’ve all walked past a display and thought ‘how much have they paid for this?!’

To get an answer, the Local Democracy Reporting Service submitted Freedom of Information requests to all 10 borough and district councils in Hertfordshire to find out what they had budgeted for Christmas lights and decorations, as well as the cost of any events this winter.

Watford's Christmas lights. Photo: Jonathan Jason

The figures revealed that some of the authorities with bigger towns have prioritised events to bring people back to the town centre, while others leave the planning to parish councils instead and provide cash grants to ensure everything runs smoothly.

The biggest spenders are seemingly Welwyn Hatfield, who have budgeted just over £57,000 for events and lights this winter, which has included impressive large light displays in town centres.

Each authority had slightly different approaches to working out budgets, so they aren’t like-for-like comparisons, but it will give you an idea of just how much of your council tax has been spent on the tree this year.

Broxbourne

Broxbourne Borough Council confirmed they had set aside a budget of £25,188 for lights and decorations across the borough for 2021 – up from £23,330 last year.

The borough council also confirmed that £704 was spent on Waltham Cross Christmas Shopping Day and £1,105 on the Festival of Carol events. The cost of the Hoddesdon Loves Christmas events won’t be known until 2022.

The council added that any other town centre events were self-funded.

Dacorum

Dacorum has no budget set in advance for Christmas lights, but they were able to provide costs of decorations for previous years to give an indication of how their money is spent.

In 2020, Dacorum spent £43,726 in lighting up their towns. That was split between £37,610 for Tring, Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead, with an additional £6,116 for neighbourhood centres.

The borough council also confirmed that while light switch-ons and similar events are organised by town councils and partners, they do contribute £8,000 to Hemel Hempstead’s event.

East Herts, Three Rivers and Hertsmere

These three councils confirmed that they do not have a budget for Christmas lighting or events, and this fell to the local town or parish council instead. The three councils were unable to provide any figures as part of the request.

North Herts

Hitchin, Royston and Baldock all receive £2,000 grants from the district council towards the provision and decoration of a town Christmas tree. 

North Herts Council arranges the erection and decoration of the Christmas tree in Broadway Gardens in Letchworth, and also gifts and arrange the erection of a Christmas tree for Garden House Hospice.

The council is unable to provide a breakdown of costs of decorating the district, and said the street scene decorations are not arranged by the council.

The forecast spend for this Christmas is £12,700, including the grants for trees. In 2020/21 the council’s outturn for Christmas was £11,813 and in 2019/20 it was £14,328.

St Albans

St Albans Christmas Cracker. Photo: St Albans District Council

Thousands of people attended St Albans’ Christmas Cracker event in November, which brought plenty of festive cheer to the city centre.

St Albans District Council confirmed the budget for the free event was £28,180 – which was calculated from the expense budget minus the income expected.

The council added it was not able to provide any figures for any other events and lights in 2021, as these will be arranged by respective town and parish councils. The authority added that in 2020 spending for Christmas lights was £17,038, with £19,160 spent in 2019. 

Stevenage

Stevenage Borough Council had to abandon its light switch-on this year, due to high winds in late November, but the council were set to spend £13,905 on the show, including a total of £6,285 on entertainment and fireworks.

For other lights and decorations, the borough council don’t have a budget set in advance for 2021, but confirmed in 2020 £23,429 was spent in total on their Christmas illuminations, with £37,403.56 spent in 2019. This is for the total cost of operating the decorations during the festive period, including power and set-up. The council confirmed they had not spent any money on replacement or new lights since 2018.

Watford

Watford's Christmas lights. Photo: Jonathan Jason

Watford got a shiny new set of LED decorations for its town centre this year, but the borough council confirmed the Business Improvement District was responsible for investing in the town’s lights and decorations.

The borough council contributes £20,000 each year towards the decorations and events.

Welwyn Hatfield

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council’s website said it is “stepping up” seasonal activities to make up for last year, and that’s reflected in the planned spending.

The council has budgeted £57,090 for Christmas decorations and events this year, up from £36,953 in 2020. That’s still down on £79,328.25 spent in 2019 on decorations and events, but it’s still the largest budget confirmed by a council in Hertfordshire.

The borough council was unable to provide a breakdown between money spent in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, or other towns within the area.