Council plans to light up Christmas
Christmas may be months away but city councillors are eager to get an order in for more Christmas lights.
The Invercargill City Council plans to have lights for Windsor, Waikiwi and Glengarry for this year’s Christmas.
Cr Neil Boniface said the lights for the three suburbs did not go up last year because it was a ‘‘rush’’ when they arrived to get them raised.
However, an order for more lights had not been made.
‘‘We are still investigating more to make sure that they are compliant,’’ Boniface said.
Winter lights were the council’s intention long-term, but no order would be placed this year as Christmas was the priority, he said.
‘‘Let’s do it right. We don’t want to rush them and we want to get it right.’’
Boniface said a report would be tabled at the council’s next finance and policy meeting.
At the council finance and policy committee meeting last week, Cr Lindsay Thomas said there had been a tremendous amount of public expectation regarding the Christmas lights.
The lights were ‘‘an issue’’ that needed some clarity at the next finance and policy meeting, Thomas said.
Thomas said it was important that the council get the order of the lights ‘‘on the road early’’.
In the committee’s financial report, the grant for the ‘‘winter and Christmas lights’’ was $13,954 over budget.
This was offset by the grant to Environment Southland for the walkway to Bluff being $50,000 under budget.
Councillors commented that if the council were to install winter lights, as indicated in the agenda, winter was nearly over.
Speaking at the meeting, Cr Karen Arnold asked how the order of the Christmas lights was tracking.
Committee chairman Neil Boniface said there were believed to be some compliance issues.
The lights had not been ordered yet and it was because of what was needed to comply with New Zealand standards, Boniface said.
Speaking after the meeting, council finance director Dean Johnston said the plan was to roll the lights out over three to five years, with each year the display getting better.
The lights would work in conjunction with the CBD upgrade.
‘‘It’s a bit of a chicken and egg. So if we put them up now, ahead of the CBD [upgrade], then it won’t make sense.’’
Some of the light designs ordered last year were yet to be revealed, Johnston said.
The council only used a percentage of the Christmas lights it purchased from China last year, but there were plans to light up the entire city CBD within three years.
Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt switched the lights on in Wachner Place in December.
Council spent about $40,000 in total on a package, which included a 10-metre Christmas tree for Wachner Place and lights for the tree, CBD and Queens Park.
The lights have remained in Wachner Place since December.
In September, four staff visited Invercargill’s sister city, Suqian, in China for six days, with three on the trip to buy replacements for the aged Christmas lights.
The trip cost ratepayers $21,000, however, the cost of the decorations was significantly lower than what other New Zealand cities had paid.