Published: September 3, 2012
Council draws up plans to remove decorative lights in Burnham

Town councillors are drawing up plans to remove decorative lighting from part of Burnham-On-Sea's seafront in order to address health and safety concerns, it has been confirmed.

The illuminations along the North Esplanade - between Burnham jetty and Seaview Road - are set to be taken away altogether amid concern about the weak foundations of the lighting columns on which they are hung, as first reported here by Burnham-On-Sea.com in July.

Town councillor Paul Young has proposed replacing the lights with lighter-weight LED strip lights, which he demonstrated at the council's latest meeting, as pictured below.

He told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "The LED strip lighting would be wound around the columns, creating very little weight and also far less wind resistance to the columns."

The costs of the new lights is being drawn up ahead of a final decision on the future of the seafront lights.

90 of the decorative illuminations were purchased by the council at a cost of £21,000 in 2007 - money that the council said was well spent since it believes the lights attract visitors and create a tourism-friendly environment.

Cllr Neville Jones said: "Many residents and visitors to Burnham very much appreciate them and remark how good they look."