Published: October 9, 2012
Overhaul for town centre lights in Burnham-On-Sea to be considered

A major project to replace street lights along Burnham-On-Sea's High Street with modern, new designs is set to be considered at a town council meeting this evening (Tuesday).

The plans to replace the current Victorian street lights with modern designs were first drawn up by the town's Civic Pride group in 2008 and are being reconsidered as part of a raft of town centre improvements.

Members of Burnham Chamber of Trade discussed the scheme at a meeting last night (Monday) among several other proposals.

The Chamber of Trade's Rhonda Mills told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "These purpose-built lights would last for many years and would be capable of holding hanging baskets in the summer and festive lights at Christmas, plus showing off branding about Burnham with big banners. They would also be tall enough not to hinder carnival floats passing through the town centre."

"The alternative scheme being put forward is to place columns between the existing lighting to support festive lights, hanging baskets and banners. The existing Victorian Style lights would be retained. There are only 19 and all the side streets and Victoria Street have a variety of different more modern lighting columns. The problem with this is that an already narrow and cluttered pavement would become even more cluttered.

"The columns suggested by Highways are very low maintenance and do not require expensive testing every few years. They are narrow and elegant, have a shape that is suggestive of waves, and could suggest that Burnham has an eye to the future as well as the past."

She added: "I think they would enhance the town centre and give it a modern feel, but we're interested in receiving feedback about what shoppers and businesses think."

When the scheme was initially drawn up, the cost of the new lights was projected to be around £3,000 per lighting column and with 19 proposed along the High Street the total cost would be £57,000.

However, in 2011, when the plans were widened to include Victoria Street, adding a further six lights, the cost of each column was estimated to be £4,000 and the total cost was £100,000.

The discussion at this evening's Town Improvements Committee meeting comes as the Town Council and Sedgemoor District Council consider how to spend £462,000 of funding on improving Burnham-On-Sea town centre.

The cash comprises £322,000 from Tesco RLT2 development funding, £40,000 from the Town Council and £100,000 from the former Civic Pride Task and Finish group.