£100,000 to spent repairing and replacing Portsmouth Christmas lights

The “extremely time sensitive” matter will be considered at a meeting of the city council’s cabinet next week (September 5) due to concerns about having infrastructure in place ahead of the early November installations.

“Christmas lights have had limited investment previously and [were] acknowledged by the electrical contractor in 2022/23 as near end of life with many working beyond reasonable expectations,” the cabinet report says.

“Recommendations for continued Christmas lights provision reflects the need to support local businesses with the attracted footfall…and brings communities together with the emphasis on encouraging the promoting community cohesion.

“The report also acknowledges the positive impact for residents and visitors who benefit from the Christmas light provision at a time when the cost of living crisis may lead to individual householders reducing celebrations at Christmas due to expense.”

No funding was allocated in this year’s council budget for this work and instead the costs, which have been estimated at £122,000, could be localised and taken from Community Infrastructure Levy pots on a ward-by-ward basis. A final decision will be made by the cabinet.

The area of Osborne Road, Palmerston Road and Marmion Road is facing the highest repair bill at more than £21,000 after 36 of the area’s 41 connection points used for the lights were “condemned”. The area, alongside Commercial Road and Cosham, have been identified as priorities for investment. These two have estimated costs of £13,300 and £10,400 respectively. At the other end of the scale, the report found only £600 needed to be spent in Drayton and £800 in Paulsgrove.

A city-wide assessment commissioned by the council resulted in 139 infrastructure points being condemned while 40 were rated as “passable”. Just 105 were in a condition described as good and not needing either replacement or repairs this year. Each replacement connection point is estimated to cost as much as £500 and the total cost could be as high as £89,500. Replacing and repairing the lights will cost a further £32,500.

“This is extremely time sensitive, with procurement and action needing to be in place for September to enable procurement and repairs for early November when lights are installed for the season,” the cabinet report adds.