AN APPEAL to replace Okehampton’s celebrated Christmas lights has been a huge success, securing the necessary £24,000 to completely replace them in time for Christmas.

Christine Marsh of Everything Okehampton, which organises, fundraises for and puts up the lights each year, said she was ‘thrilled to bits’ with everyone’s generous support.

This includes the proceeds of a gala dinner held at Okehampton College which included a silent auction run by the Hatherleigh Pink Ladies along with a number of donations from supporters, great and small.

It comes after Okehampton Town Council agreed at their most recent meeting to become the owner of the new lights, which have been ordered and are due to arrive in town next week.

This is a move towards ensuring the long-term future of the lights, Mrs Marsh said, stressing that the responsibility for putting up the lights each year, and making all the other arrangements including taking out insurance, would remain with Everything Okehampton.

The new lights will be up in the town centre in time for the town’s flagship festive Edwardian Evening event on December 2, just as they are every year.

Mrs Marsh said: ‘At the moment the company we have got them from are waiting for them to come into the country. They are a slightly different design from the old ones.

‘We have traded in the old ones; they were starting to break down, so we thought let’s replace them all, so that when the town council take on ownership of the lights they will be completely new.

‘Everything Okehampton will still put them up, we will still insure them but the actual purchase of the lights is being done by the town council. We are working with the town council; this is the start of a partnership.’

This year will be the last year that two of the three volunteers who provide the technical expertise to put up the lights in the town centre in November will be taking part, after many years volunteering for the town in this way. Steve Bolt and Louis Enderson will be helping put up the new lights on their frames, along with fellow long-time volunteer, lighting expert Mike Harding.

This year, though, there will not be Christmas trees going up above doorways, due to Health and Safety concerns raised by the insurers about volunteers climbing ladders to put the trees up above doorways.

Mrs Marsh said her campaign to raise funds for the lights had had a brilliant response from the community, as well as organisations further afield, including a grant of £750 from Devon Freemasons.

‘I have had lots of donations, large ones and small ones, all of which have enabled us to replace the lights,’ she said. ‘Actually going out and getting the money is the hard part, which is why I am so grateful to those people who have donated.

‘I’m just thrilled to bits with everybody that has given donations. These larger ones are just amazing. I don’t say no to any amount.

‘I am just so grateful that people are taking an interest in the lights. I have had some people interested in the lights that I have never heard from before and it is absolutely wonderful. It really has give us a boost.

‘The gala evening event very very well. Everybody I have spoken to said they enjoyed it.’

Everything Okehampton is run by Mrs Marsh, who is also a town councillor, her daughter Caroline Mott, who is a borough councillor and mayor of West Devon, and Allenton Fisher its new treasurer.

Also being launched in time for Christmas are playing cards which will feature Okehampton businesses on them, being organised by Michele Flexman.

These will be sold in aid of the running costs of the Christmas lights.