£8,000 bill to replace Burnham's storm-damaged seafront lights

Published: February 23, 2007
Exclusive: £8,000 bill to replace Burnham's storm-damaged seafront lights

The final cost of replacing Burnham-On-Sea's storm-damaged decorative lights will be a huge £8,000, it emerged this week.

Over half of the lights along The Esplanade were wrecked or damaged during the 75mph storms which slammed into the seafront last month, causing a major headache for the town council, which oversees them.

This week, the council's Policy and Finance Committee unanimously voted in favour of proceeding with work to replace the lights and restore the seafront back to normal.

Fortunately, though, tax payers in Burnham will NOT have to foot the £8,000 bill.

An insurance claim has been lodged with the town council's insurers, Zurich Insurance, who have already agreed to "meet a large amount of the costs." Furthermore, several new sponsors are being found to cover some of the outstanding work.

A spokeswoman for the Town Council told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "Councillors are very keen to get The Esplanade back to its normal state again in time for the holiday season, so we've asked Blachere, the supplier of the original lights, to provide us with a set of brand new lights which we hope to have in place for the Easter holiday period."