THE rising costs of Christmas lights and Dickensian Evening have forced Tavistock Chamber of Commerce to call on the town?s high street giants to help. The chamber is eager to overcome the shortfall in funding it faced following last year?s event. At the annual meeting last week treasurer Janet Knight said that while the costs totalled £6,922.76 the amount collected from traders was £5,688 ? a shortfall of more than £1,200. Chairman David Scrivener told members that none of the multi-national companies had contributed to last year?s lights and that the costs of putting on the Dickensian Evening were rising ? for instance, the price of closing off the main shopping streets had gone up by 20%. Secretary Guy Talbot said he wanted to move away from a ?name and shame? campaign, but he would be writing to the head offices of the multi-national companies who trade in the town so that they would have enough time to consider a contribution when setting their budgets for this year. He said: ?All businesses have benefited but it has been supported exclusively by local businesses.? This week a Woolworths spokesperson said Woolworths ?prides itself? on helping the local community it is in, especially at Christmas time. ?All requests for support are considered carefully, however, at this stage in the year we cannot make a final decision. We welcome the chamber to approach us nearer the time.? A spokesperson for WH Smith said it was too early for them to comment on contributions for Christmas events. The chamber would need to make an approach for 2005 with the costs associated and a breakdown of what activities and events were planned. ?The normal Christmas planning is finalised in June or July although there are ad hoc opportunities for funding in the run up to Christmas.? Nicola Boniface, spokesperson for Superdrug, said: ?We are considering making a contribution to this year?s Tavistock Christmas lights initiative, but cannot confirm plans at this stage.? Mr Scrivener also proposed at the meeting that an optional standing order system be set up for subscriptions to the chamber. ?We need to make sure money is coming in on a regular basis. A standing order system could be put in place for membership,? he said. He outlined a plan where subscriptions were collected on a quarterly basis rather than as a one-off payment so that the majority of money would already be in before Dickensian Evening, and it would help spread the cost for traders. Subscription rates for this year had already been agreed at £45. But Mr Scrivener suggested an add-on of £45, £90 or £135, depending on the size of business, which would cover the major expenditure of Christmas lights and Dickensian Evening. Members would then pay an all-in-one price. The benefit for those who choose to pay by standing order was that their rate would be protected against increases for three years. Members at the meeting agreed that subscriptions for next year should be raised to £50 and that the optional standing order system be set up.
