TAVISTOCK's Christmas lights came under the spotlight during a meeting in the town last week.

The cost of erecting and maintaining the lights — some £12,000 per annum — has been borne by the town council for several years now, after Tavistock Chamber of Commerce said it was no longer able to afford the operation.

Cllr Brian Trew told the council's properties committee that he was concerned the ratepayers of Tavistock, not businesses, were paying for the lights.

He said: 'Costs are rising and I think the traders should be paying their fair share. As it stands at the moment, we foot the entire bill for the Christmas lights.

'I wonder how many householders realise they are paying for them, and how many would be horrified. Enough is enough.'

Cllr Trew said although the council itself was a trader, it could not possibly be fair to ask it to contribute for more than a third of the total cost of the operation.

He said it would be 'completely unreasonable' to refuse to pay for this year's lights, but proposed for 2014, the council pay only for the illuminations on its own properties and the church.

Cllr Ted Sherrell seconded the proposal. He said: 'Christmas lights are good to see but it's essentially the council tax payer paying for lights which ultimately benefit traders.

'Really, they should be defraying a large part of the expense. If there were no lights — although they are nice to look at — it wouldn't particularly affect the people of Tavistock but it would affect the traders.'

Cllr John Sheldon said there had been a meeting just last week between the town clerk, the works superintendent, chamber of commerce representatives and members of Tavistock BID.

He said the chamber fully acknowledged the fact the council had 'bailed them out' over the lights.

Works superintendent Wayne Southall said: 'We basically discussed the whole principle as well as delivery of the lights. Both parties made it quite clear that they do want to engage in working out how to generate funds to deliver the lights.

'Various options were discussed, although BID is limited as to how much money they can divert to the lights.'

Mr Southall said the organisations involved were at an early stage in their negotiations so much work needed to be done, but if Cllr Trew's proposal was carried, it would give a focus and a timescale to work to.

Cllr John Sellis said: 'I think we are rather jumping the gun here, I thought we were supposed to be negotiating with BID and the chamber.

'I think we should be careful here. You say ratepayers might be very upset about paying for the lights‚ they might be even more upset if there were none. I propose we continue to negotiate.'

The committee turned down Cllr Trew's proposal and backed a proposal by Cllr Sellis to delegate power to its officers to negotiate the lights issue with the relevant parties, reporting back to the council in due course.

The recommendation was ratified by the full council at its meeting on Wednesday.