Belfast will not see Christmas lighting on main arterial routes going into the city centre due to lack of funds, officials have told councillors at City Hall.
Elected representatives at Belfast City Council had been hoping to extend the Christmas lighting programme beyond the city centre along the main roads.
But an officer report for the council’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee stated that a lack of extra funds from Stormont meant that a wider extension of the programme was not possible.
The report states: “The council previously received funding from Department for Communities (DfC) revitalisation funding, which allowed officers to distribute monies via a funding programme to business clusters on arterial routes for them to produce some Christmas related activity.
“Given reduced levels of budget within Executive department budgets funding has not been provided for any additional activity on arterial routes. It should be noted that there would also be significant cost and the lead time required to secure the wayleave agreements and install the mounting infrastructure.”
Last year, Belfast’s elected representatives were looking at a 50% cut in the Christmas lights programme, before the council made a U-turn and agreed to find the money from underspends and “specified reserves”.
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The Christmas Lights Switch On event will take place on Saturday November 16 and will be a free, but ticketed event.
The installation, storage and maintenance of the Belfast festive lighting scheme is managed through a non-council third party appointed via a public procurement process. This contract is currently in its final year and due for renewal from 2025 onwards.
The council report states: “The supplier has seen significant cost increases relating to insurance, energy costs and labour costs.
“The budget for the Christmas Festive Lighting Scheme was unchanged in the previous four years and has historically been supported through additional nonrecurrent budgets.
“Whilst there has been an uplift allocated to lighting for 2024, this has covered increasing costs outlined above, repairs to previously damaged sites, a small number of new additional sites and the offset of previous non recurrent funding.
“The provision of festive lights covers the city centre with a combination of cross-street and pole mounted features. New sites included in the scheme this year are: Church Lane, Anne Street and 2 Royal Avenue.
“Officers are currently conducting final site visits at the Belfast Stories site, Berry Street and Lower Garfield Street to provide additional lighting on the Royal Avenue area. They are also investigating alternatives for Arthur Street and Anne Street due to ongoing building works.
“Officers are currently developing the new tender terms to be progressed for provision from 2025 onwards.”
At the City Growth and Regeneration Committee, SDLP councillor Donal Lyons said it was “disappointing” there would be no lighting on routes going into the city centre this year.
He said: “The (DfC) fund was designed when many arterial routes had through Business Improvement Districts, traders’ associations and various others their own projects that were supplemented by the council. Many of them have gone to the wall since or are no longer viable.”
He said: “One of the concerns last year was that Christmas lights were very much focused on our retail core but neglected our hospitality industry, regarding the direction of Shaftesbury Square. This drift towards using Royal Avenue as being the sole trading and commercial centre in the city is incomplete. Arterial roads, for example Ballyhackamore, have developed clusters for hospitality which would need animation. The Christmas Market is already acting as a footfall, and we have non-public realm Christmas lights effectively coming from the Christmas Market — we are merely supplementing these and leaving other parts of the city quite bare.”
He said: “There has been a drift, the Christmas lights in the last 10 years have left South Belfast, Shaftesbury Square, and every year they seem to be moving another 100 yards, and consolidating on Royal Avenue.
“It is something people are noticing, and getting somewhat agitated about.”
Alliance councillor Fiona McAteer asked council officers: “Is there any consideration for an uplift next year? Obviously the costs for energy aren’t going down, they are just going to keep going up.
She added: “The contract is up next year in 2025, is there any way that can be built into the contract, that they also actually have to provide additional (lighting) on the arterial routes?
“The Shared Prosperity Fund money (refers to) the city centre, but is there any way businesses slightly further out can avail of that, just to animate those communities and get them connected back in.”
A council officer said she “would be happy” to look at the suggestions, and would look at using Shared Prosperity Fund money to “purchase stock as opposed to hiring in contractors” regarding potential arterial route lights.”